Tata Steel warns against wrong technology

The mood at the International Steel Seminar 2003 was cautiously optimistic. B Muthuraman, managing director, Tata Steel, said that in the post-liberalisation phase, steel capacity was being expanded at a frenetic pace.

Most of the companies used the wrong technology and as a result a large number of steel plants remain un-finished.

He said companies would have to keep in mind that being a developing nation, India would not have scrap for a long time and lacked good coking coal. He warned another challenge facing industry was shortage of top quality human resources.

Delivering the keynote address, steel technologist S K Gupta said, with the boom in the industry, corruption had also increased. Major steel trading companies sponsored mafia in steel and steel related businesses.

He cited the example of China and said that the country had reduced export of metallurgical coke from 12 million tonne to 2 million tonne. "In India also, corruption relating to raw material prices increased" said Gupta.