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India to become second largest steel producer soon: Steel Min
NEW DELHI: Riding on expansion plans of steel majors, including Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL) and Steel Authority of India (SAIL), India will soon become the second largest steel producer in the world, the government today said.
"India will soon become the second largest manufacturer of steel in the world...Steel capacity in the country has increased from 66 million tonne (MT) in 2009 to 90 MT in 2012," Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma said chairing a meeting of a parliamentary consultative committee to review the functioning of RINL.
The Steel Minister said that the per capita steel consumption in the country has risen from 38 kg to 59 kg.
India slipped one rank to become the fourth largest steel producer in 2010, with 68.3 million tonne (MT) of output.
China is the number one producer of steel, followed by Japan and the US at second and third places, respectively.
Underlining the need for conserving raw material resources in the country, he said export duty on iron ore has also been increased to 30 per cent to curb exports of iron ore.
The government is also according priority to research and development in the areas of beneficiation, pelletisation etc, he said.
About RINL, he said that the capacity of the state-run company, after completion of its ongoing expansion plans would reach 6.3 MT from the present 3 MT.
The company has also expanded its dealer network and has developed a network of 537 rural dealers, he said.
Some of the members expressed views that RINL should be allotted captive mines.
State-run SAILBSE 0.62 % has also undertaken a massive expansion drive to increase its steel production capacity from current 14 MT to about 24 MT, with an investment of about Rs 70,000 crore
India to become second largest steel producer soon: Steel Min - The Economic Times
