"We shall achieve 124 million tonnes of steel capacity by 2011-12, well exceeding the requirement that would be to the tune of about 110 million tons at that point of time," Steel Minister Paswan said.
Steel prices shot up by over 50 per cent since January, adding to the woes of the UPA government, which is battling a seven-year high inflation of 8.75 per cent in its last year.
The annual demand for steel in India has been rising by about 13 per cent, but production is growing by over 6 per cent, according to official sources.
Last fiscal, the country's crude steel production stood at 53.9 million tonnes, of which about 5 million tonnes were exported. To bridge the demand-supply mismatch, India had to import nearly 7 million tonnes of steel .
Steel Secretary R S Pandey while endorsing India becoming a net steel importer from being a net exporter till a few years ago, said the trend is likely to continue for sometime as increase in capacity takes at least three to four years.
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As per official figures, country's finished steel import went up by over 300 per cent from 1.6 million tonnes in 2002-03 to nearly 7 million tonnes in 2007-08 (provisional).