NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's state-owned consultancy and engineering firm Mecon Ltd signed a preliminary understanding with Italy's Centro Sviluppo Materiali (CSM) to develop electrical and automotive grade steel for domestic steelmakers.
CSM will also transfer technology to Mecon on steel production, including for the grade used in pipelines to transport oil and gas, Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh tweeted on Wednesday from Berlin.
Even though India is a major steel producer, it depends heavily on imports of the expensive high-grade alloys used in cars and electrical equipment from countries including Japan, South Korea and Russia.
India imports 400,000 tonnes a year of CRGO or cold-rolled, grain-oriented steel, which is used in power transformers.
Under the recently announced National Steel Policy, India wants to nearly triple its production capacity by the next decade and acquire technology to produce higher value products including automotive steel.
(Reporting by Neha Dasgupta, editing by David Evans)
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