Steel cos must spend 1% of profit on R&D: Vishnu Deo Sai

30 January 2017

Union minister of state (MOS) for mines and steel Vishnu Deo Sai on Saturday proposed that India’s private and public sector steel manufacturers should spend 1% of their gross annual profit for research and development (R&D) in producing cheap and high quality steel.

Sai, who was in Ranchi to inaugurate the 30th national convention for metallurgical and materials engineers, said the country’s R&D in the steel sector should be strengthened to compete in the international market.

“We at the steel ministry assure to address all the obstacles and support the domestic steel manufacturers. However, R&D in this sector has been ignored so far,” Sai said before laying his proposal before the heads of several PSU and private steel manufacturers here.

Sai went on to say that strengthening of R&D is a must for the government’s target of increasing the country’s gross annual steel production to 300 million tonnes by 2030.

Despite a global slump in the steel sector last year, India recorded a 7.5% growth and produced 87.5MT of the metal. The country’s annual steel production capacity had increased by 22% since the 2013-14 fiscal to 125MTPA as on January 1 this year. The share of privately held manufacturers in the country’s crude steel production has also grown to 80% in the last 25 years.

Speaking to media persons in the sidelines of the programme, Sai said it is challenging for the Union steel ministry to create new markets in the domestic and the international sectors for supplying the increased steel production.

Sai hinted that the ministry is primarily looking to capitalize on the domestic market in terms of national highways, roads, ports and railway tracks. The MOS stated that the ministry is also talking to a few countries as potential export destinations.

Source – TOI