TATA Steel is expanding presence in the Asia-Pacific region and improving profitability by increasing efficiency in the operatives there.

Mr TV Narendran MD told Business Line that the company has decided to enter Indonesia with downstream products in early 2014-15.

TATA Steel is present in China, Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, the Philippines and Australia through conversion, re-rolling and fabrication operations.

However, he said this region’s markets still remain low investment and low margin yielding geographies for TATA Steel.

The company’s priorities lay in the high margin Indian market, where its investment commitments are also significantly higher.

The Chinese, Australian and South-East Asian markets are placed under the umbrella of Tata Steel’s Singapore-located subsidiary NatSteel Holdings.

Mr Narendran said that the other entities in the region, TATA Steel (Thailand) Public Co and The Siam Industrial Wire, restrict their domain to Thailand only.