India becomes the third largest producer of Steel: Union Minister

Source: PIB, Government of India

The Union Minister for Mines and Steel, Narendra Singh Tomar chairing the Consultative Committee meeting of the Ministry of Steel and Mines, in Bengaluru, Karnataka on July 07, 2015. Source: PIB, Government of India

  Union Minister of Steel and Mines Narendra Singh Tomar said that, so far India was the 4th largest steel producer in the world only after China, Japan and the US. However, during the first five months of this calendar year, India has achieved the 3rd position in the global steel production. The minister was speaking at the meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to the Ministry of Steel and Mines on July 7, 2015. He elaborated that Indian steel industry is growing at a reasonably good pace and last year the growth in crude steel production in India is more than 8%. However, per capita steel consumption is quite low, 60 Kg as against the world average of 216 kg. The low consumption no doubt indicates huge growth potential for Indian steel industry. India has fixed a target of 300 million tonnes production capacity by 2025 and steel ministry is working out action plan and strategies to achieve this target, he informed the members. Tomar further said, Indian steel industry is already in expansion mode. The older steel plants are being modernized and expended. New green field plants are also coming with state of the art technologies. He told the members that very recently the Prime Minister dedicated the India’s largest Blast Furnace of 4160 Cubic Meter, installed at IISCO Steel plant at Burnpur and several Blast Furnaces of around 4000 Cubic Meter with world class efficiency parameters are in the operation in the country. On Research and Development to sustain the long term growth of the Indian steel industry, he said the problems in raw material area need to be addressed to utilize low grade ore and high ash coal through R&D and technology interventions. He stressed the need to pursue R&D for development of value added products for which we are dependent on import. Secondary steel sector is also requiring R&D interventions, he said. “We have also issued an advisory to all the large steel companies to step up R&D and enhance R&D investment up to 1% of their sales turnover. SAIL has corporate R&D center at Ranchi. RINL is also expending R&D infrastructure. Large private sector companies have also setup good R&D facilities for addressing their problems,” the Minister informed the members. ‘Ministry of Steel is facilitating for setting up of a new institution SRTMI and is contributing 50% in the corpus of SRTMI to spear head R&D of national importance. In-principle approval for setting up of SRTMI has been given and CEOs of major Indian Steel Companies have signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Ministry of Steel for participation and financial contribution in the initiative with an initial corpus of Rs 200 crore. Indian iron and steel industry will meet the set target of steel production of 300 million tonne by 2025 by developing new path breaking technology and using of Indian raw materials through R&D at pilot/ demonstration scale’, Tomar explained.    

July 7, 2015 | 8:58 pm IST.