Union Minister for Steel, Narendra Singh Tomar will inaugurate a two-day Steel Mart, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in Chandigarh on Wednesday.
CII said the idea behind the mart was to drive ‘Make in India’ in steel sector by bringing together both steel producers and consumers to interact and examine in detail the current and future dynamics of steel industry in India as also to chalk out a focused action plan for aligning interests of North India’s Steel industry viz-a-viz global markets,
The two-day Steel Mart: an International Conference & Exposition on Indian Steel Industry will be held at CII NR Headquarters in sector 31 A.
While Tomar will inaugurate it, it will be chaired by SS Mohanty, Director — Technical, Steel Authority of India ltd (SAIl). Officials said CII Steel Mart would aim to leverage the sector’s true potential by creating an enabling Policy Environment for Steel industry with the senior most Govt and industry representatives deliberating on the critical challenges, issues and solutions at a common platform.
Experts are expected to highlight the current and future trends of the steel industry, discuss ways to narrow the demand-supply gap and share experiences on different facets of recent advancements in this sector.
Some of the key aspects to be deliberated upon include land acquisition for capacity augmentation in the green field, sources of raw materials — coking coal, iron ore, lime stone, scrap, etc. from the indigenous sources and from abroad, quality and price of raw materials, funding issues and above all the demand generation for steel on the back of public investment in infrastructure, ports, civil aviation, urban infrastructure, supplemented by private investment in communication, storage, ports, improvement in overall business scenario, etc.
The conference would also focus on the growth and revival of Indian manufacturing in critical segments which would lead to huge demand generation for steel.
North India contributes 30 per cent of the total steel production under the bars/rods and structural category. The demand for secondary steel products mainly originates from light engineering and auto-component industry in Punjab and Haryana region. Also, there is a huge demand for primary steel based products and various types of special steels. The demand for these products is growing at a decent pace over the years, also with a spurt in real estate & construction sector, but the potential is still huge and CII Steel Mart would try to address that.
Various panel discussions would be organised as part of CII Steel Mart focusing on Enabling Policy Environment for Steel, managing Capacity against Uncertain Demand, Make in India: Opportunities for the Steel Industry, Steel Production — Zero Effect & Zero Defect and on enhancing Competitiveness, Investment Opportunities & Options for Finance: Perspective on MSMEs.