India to Become 2nd Largest Steel Producer by 2015
Tuesday, 27 September 2011, 19:45 IST
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India is expected to become the world's second largest producer of crude steel by 2015, riding on expansion plans of domestic players like SAIL and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL), the government said. Chairing a meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee, Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma said annual demand for steel is likely to grow at an average of over 10% in the next five years as compared to 8 per cent growth during 1991-92 and 2010-11. India slipped one rank to become the fourth largest steel producer in 2010, with 68.3 million tonne (MT) of output. It produced 63.5 MT steel in 2009. China is the number one producer of steel, followed by Japan and the US at second and third places, respectively. "India also maintained its lead position as the world’s largest producer of direct reduced iron (DRI) or sponge iron," the official statement said, adding the per capita steel consumption during the last six years has risen from 38 kg in 2005-06 to 55 kg in 2010-11. The steel sector contributes nearly 2% of the GDP and employs over 5 lakh people. Expressing concerns over exports of iron ore, a fast depleting resource, Verma said iron ore is a non-renewable natural resource and his Ministry is of the view that it should be conserved for long-term utilisation of domestic steel industry. "Our policy should, accordingly, aim at value addition of iron ore within the country instead of exporting iron ore," he said. National Steel Vision and strategy paper are being finalised for promoting steel sector, he said. The Minister also elaborated on expansion plans of PSUs like SAIL, RINL etc. "The major thrust of the modernisation and expansion plans is to adopt the best modern technology, which in addition to being cost effective should also be energy efficient and environment-friendly," he said. State-run SAIL has undertaken a massive expansion drive to increase its steel production capacity from current 14 MT to about 24 MT, with an investment of about Rs 70,000 crore.
Source: PTI
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