India has laid a road map to open a path of growth for its Steel sector. India has fixed a target of 300 million tonnes production capacity by 2025.
India was the 4th largest steel producer in the world only after China, Japan and the US. Narendra Singh Tomar, Steel Minister, says during the first five months of this calendar year, India has achieved the 3rd position in the global steel production.
The minister says 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, he added.
How is the govt planning to achieve the production target?
Modernisation of Steel plants
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.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently 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.
Research and Development
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. Tomar 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 said.
‘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.
Mines and Minerals Act 2015
Balvender Kumar, Secretary Mines , said the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) (Amendment) Act, 2015 became necessary to address the emergent problems in the mining industry. The Amendment removes discretion in the grant of mineral concessions.
All mineral concessions are granted by the respective State Governments now through auctions, thereby bringing in greater transparency and removing discretion. This should also mean that the Government will get an increased share from the mining sector, he added.
Exploration
Indian mining industry has not seen the type of exploration as in other countries. To address this, the Amendment Act has provided for a National Mineral Exploration Trust created out of contribution from the mining lease holders, Balvender Kumar said.
This would allow the Government to have a dedicated fund for undertaking exploration. National Mineral Exploration Trust is being set up for providing impetus to exploration in mining sector, he said.
In addition, the transferability provision (in respect of Mining Leases to be granted through auction) would permit flow of greater investment to the sector and increasing efficiency in mining.
Source: Commodity Online