In a move to steer the steel industry for making it one of the largest steel producers in the world, the Government will promote and encourage the growth of domestic steel industry by using made-in-India steel in all the Government-funded projects.
“We want to promote and encourage the growth of domestic steel industry and so we want that India-made steel should be given preference in the Government-funded projects. A draft Cabinet note has already been initiated,” Steel Minister Chaudhary Birendra Singh said, while speaking at a national conference of secondary steel producers. In order to achieve a substantial growth in the steel sector, the Government is initiating various strategies to deal with its ongoing impediments like high input cost, availability of raw materials, dependency on imports and financial stress. However, the Minister said, “India is going to become the second largest steel producer in the world by 2018. The Government will spend Rs4 lakh crore on infrastructure projects, which will boost steel demand. On the new steel policy, we have already released the draft policy. We have also received feedback from stakeholders. We will include any good suggestions made by secondary steel producers.”
“In this month only, we will send it to the Cabinet for approval. Through this policy the Government plans to more than double the steel production capacity and per capita consumption from the present level,” he added. Asked whether the Government plans to make it mandatory or on preferential basis, Singh said, “This should be taken on a preference basis. In the Government ministries and departments where the consumption of steel is more, like Railways, I want that on the preference basis, they should use steel made in India and it should be made part of the tender.”
Singh, however, added that steel which is not available in the country can be imported. There would be a quantum jump in the steel consumption once the proposal is approved, he said, adding Railways, urban housing, shipping and national highways are big customers. In January, the steel ministry had released the draft policy to ensure that the steel sector follows a sustainable path of development in respect of augmenting capacity to 300 million tonnes by 2030-31 in environment friendly manner.
However, Steel Secretary Aruna Sharma said, “The country's steel production is estimated to rise 11 per cent at over 90 million tonnes, while exports increased 57 per cent last fiscal. Imports are estimated to have declined by 34 per cent.”
While Housing and Urban Development Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said, “Make-in-India campaign has identified 25 sectors in manufacturing, infrastructure and service activities as the focus areas to drive the economy. For at least 9 of these sectors like automobile, defence, railways and construction, steel plays a crucial role in their competitive edge.” Steel, being a crucial component in the successful implementation of the Government’s other flagship programmes like ‘Smart Cities Mission’ and ‘Housing for All’,” Naidu further said, the steel sector has an output multiplier effect of nearly 1.4 times on GDP and employment multiplier factor of 6.8.”