State Minister for Industry and Commerce Rajesh Munat has underlined the need for joint co-operation between the Government and Steel manufacturers for exploring ways to bring the industry out of the current dark days of recession.
“Chhattisgarh is now recognised as a ‘Steel Manufacturing Hub’ of the country and its industrial development is also dependent upon the growth of the Steel industry,” the Minister said in his address at the two-day ‘Chhattisgarh Steel Conclave’ organised by Chhattisgarh Steel Chamber which began here on Friday.
Munat said that the deliberations held at the Conclave during the technical sessions would help to acquire inputs from experts and the Steel manufacturers on the use of new technology by industry. In his address, SK Das, Director (Commercial), National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) said that Chhattisgarh is the number one Steel producing State in the country.“The NMDC itself is setting up a 3 million tonne per annum capacity Steel plant in Bastar region with plans to double its capacity to 6 million tonnes per annum,” he said.
Das said that Chhattisgarh’s contribution is at 70 to 75 per cent of the minerals produced by NMDC while the rest gets mined in Karnataka.
He said that NMDC is a major supplier of iron ore to Chhattisgarh’s Sponge Iron units. About 30 to 35 per cent of the customers in Chhattisgarh are currently receiving minerals from NMDC with a steady rise witnessed in the demand for minerals from the company in the State, he said.
Das said that the Steel industry had been facing some of the key hurdles in its growth which are related to three factors — lack of sufficient raw material supply, problems in land acquisition and environmental norms.
Regarding coal demand from the industry, coking coal reserves in India are virtually nil. The country cannot keep depending on importing coal which has brought about the need for acquiring coal fields abroad, Das said.
“The industry would have to develop the technology where coking coal is not required. At the same time, the sponge iron industry would have to look for ways to bring down the cost of production while also adopting cleaner technologies,” he said.P M Parlewar, Director, MSME Development Institute, Raipur said that the global trend among steel manufacturers is to adopt new technology which had not been happening in Chhattisgarh.
He said that the MSME can help the issue of technology adoption through ‘Steel Cluster Development’ in Chhattisgarh. “Not a single cluster had been developed in Chhattisgarh while there are atleast 15 to 20 clusters had been established by the industry in other States,” he said.
N Baijendra Kumar, IAS, Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Housing & Environment, Commerce & Industries, Government of Chhattisgarh said that the one has to come out of the mindset of looking at trade and industry suspiciously.“We are retarding development due to precautionary measures of various agencies,” he said.
Kamal Sarda, CMD, Sarda Energy & Minerals ltd urged NMDC to hike the quota of iron ore for the steel units in Chhattisgarh.He said that all global recessionary cycles are due to demand and supply mismatch. Sarda further remarked,”We don’t keep sufficient financial liquidity and spend it all for expansion of units. The key to survival in a recessionary trend is to have sufficient liquidity.”
Earlier, Ramesh Kumar Agrawal, President, Chhattisgarh Steel Chamber said that the steel industry is the backbone of the State’s economy.He said that the steel units in Chhattisgarh require technical upgradation and their integration. “We need to cut costs and improve efficiency,” Agrawal said.