Tata Tinplate

On January 1920, the Burmah Oil and The Tata Iron & Steel Company (TISCO) jointly incorporated The Tinplate Company of India Limited (TCIL) to cater for the demand for tinplate that arose following World War I. Burmah contributed two-thirds of the starting capital and Tata the remainder. Burmah required tinplate for the cans used to hold the kerosene it produced.[8]

By November 1921, structural steel for the plant and machinery had been imported from the USA and UK and the plant was established at Golmuri, Jamshedpur near the Tata Steel works. The design was based on an Indiana rolling plant. In December 1922, the first hot dip tinning plant started rolling out finished tinplate.[5] By 1924, a total of six mills were in production and the Company was producing almost 40 per cent of India's tinplate needs. In 1926, the level of production exceeded the country's imports for the first time.[8] The Company's main competition was from tinplate imported from South Wales. In its early years the Company relied to a large extent on European 'covenanted' labour for supervisory and skilled roles, but this lessened over time as the skills of Indian workers developed. Just under 3,000 workers were employed in the late 1920s, early 1930s.[9]

With the outbreak of World War II, TCIL diversified into the manufacturing of un-tinned black plates used in Jettison tanks for the Royal Air Force. Also TCIL took over processing of steel from sheet mills of Tata Steel to augment production.

TCIL entered into an agreement with Wean United Canada for switching to Electrolytic Tinning Process. In 1973, an Electrolytic Tinning Line was commissioned with a capacity of 90,000 tonnes per annum to produce tinplate and tin-free steel. In 1996, TCIL established its first Cold Rolling Mill Complex with a capacity of 110,000 tonnes per annum, as part of a backward integration to reduce dependency on imported uncoated sheet steel coils, known as tin mill black plate (TMBP). In 2005, a printing and lacquering line was introduced as part of a forward integration to reduce supply chain inefficiencies. In 2007, mill capacity was more than doubled to 379,000 tonnes by the commissioning of a second Tinning Line; a second Cold Rolling Mill facility was added a year later. Production and sales reached 360,000 tons in 2018–19.[10]

In 2012, Tata Steel increased its shareholding in TCIL to 73.44% which currently stands at 74.96%[11]

Through volumes, TCIL holds 70% market share in India and exports 25% of the production to South-East Asia, Europe, and the Middle East.[7][10]

In August 2021, announced its expansion plans, an additional capacity of 3,00,000 tons per annum.[12]

In September 2022, it was announced that the Company would be merged into Tata Steel.[13]