India is capable of producing 300 million tonnes of steel by 2030, as envisaged in the National Steel Policy 2017, but many challenges have to be overcome on the path to the target, according to experts in the sector. At present, India produces 90 million tonnes of steel per annum.
The experts were here to deliberate at a one-day seminar on ‘Success and survival strategies in the steel sector’ organised here on Friday by the magazine, Steel and Metallurgy.
Delivering the inaugural address N.K Nanda, Director (Technical) of the National Mineral Development Corporation, said the main challenge was to keep the input costs in steel production down and maintain high quality for the industry to be competitive.
Mr. Nanda said “as far as coking coal is concerned, we have little choice as it has to be imported from other countries, but we have sufficient reserves of iron ore. But the challenge is to produce ore in a cost-effective manner and supply it to the steel industry.”
A.S Firoz, economist specialising in the sector, said backward integration may not be of much use to the steel companies at present. Bad investment decisions are plaguing the sector, he added.
P.L Haranadh, Deputy Chairman of the Visakhaptnam port, said logistics cost would have to be brought down drastically to make the steel industry competitive.
D.N Rao, Director (Operations) of the RINL, said marketing, input costs and quality control were the three key factors in steel production.
S.K Rai, technical director of M.N Dastur & Co Ltd, said the Visakhapatnam steel plant should aim at 20 million tonnes per annum by 2030 from the present level of 6.3 million tonnes.
Sushim Banerjee, Director-General of the Institute for Steel Development and Growth, said creating demand for steel, especially in rural areas, was as important as capacity augmentation to reach the target by 2030.
Magazine editor Nirmalya Mukherjee presided over the seminar.
