A top representative said that steel major Tata Steel is confident of saving 600 million pounds ($831 million) between October 2008 and March 2009 from the operations of its UK-subsidiary, Corus.

Tata Steel bought the Anglo-Dutch company Corus in October 2006.

The company had launched a cost-cutting programme in 2008 in order to save this amount to bridge over the economic disaster.

On the sidelines of CII annual regional meeting, Koushik Chatterjee, group chief financial officer of Tata Steel, said, “We launched a programme called 'Weathering the Storm' in October-November last year where we planned to save 600 million pounds over the next six months in absolute basis. It is in line till date.”

But Mr. Chatterjee did not count the quantity achieved up till now.

Previously, the company said it took a number of temporary measures such as product mix changes, conserving cash and reducing working capital to cut cost.

“Corus has cut production by 35-40 per cent. We are still maintaining that,” Chatterjee said.