Government is committed to promote the steel sector as part of its efforts to make the country the second largest producer in the world, Union Minister Narendra Singh Tomar said today.
"At present, steel sector is passing through bad phase. I want to assure that this sector will come out of this stress and good days will soon come for the steel sector. The government is committed towards its development," Tomar said while addressing a CII conference here today.
"The country has become third largest producer of steel in the world and we are aiming to become the second largest producer by 2020," he said while calling for concerted efforts from the private sector to further push growth.
He said the country had set a target to produce 300 million tonnes of steel production by 2025 from the present installed capacity of 100 MT.
Noting that the steel sector was the backbone of country's industrial sector, Tomar, who is also minister for Mines & Labour and Employment, underscored the need for boosting capacity expansion, improving infrastructure, increasing steel consumption and technology upgradation.
The minister further said a conference has been planned in Delhi next month to discuss the problems of steel sector especially small units.
"In August, we are planning to hold a conference in Delhi wherein we will be hearing problems of small sector engaged in steel manufacturing. Representatives from big units will also participate and discuss how they can contribute in resolving issues of small units," he said adding that 50 per cent of steel production is contributed by small and medium units.
Sharing information about expansion of steel plants, the minister said the modernisation of SAIL with an investment of Rs 70,000 crore has been completed.
"This will enhance the production capacity to 23 million tonnes from present level of 13 MT by January 2016. We have also planned to invest another Rs 1.50 lakh crore for next phase of expansion to achieve the target of 50 MT by SAIL alone," he informed.
The minister further said, "We have also planned Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) with four iron ore rich states which are Karnataka, Jharkhand, Orissa, Chhattisgarh and will soon set up plants to produce 3 MT of steel initially, which will go up till 6 mtpa, adding 24 mtpa to the national production levels".
The capacity of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited will be expanded from 2 MT at present to 5.7 MT by next year, he said.
He also emphasized on spreading awareness about more and more usage of steel, especially in rural areas so as to boost its demand and hence to save the ailing steel industry.
"Presently India's per capita usage is just 59 kg as compared to 700 kg of China and world average of 215 kg. Both industry and government need to work aggressively together to increase this demand," he added.
"No effort work was done (by the previous government) for increasing iron ore production. As a result, iron ore production went down from 218 MT in 2009-10 to 152 MT," he said.
