Steel ministry will rate the ranking of Top-50 Secondary Steel/Smart Producers: Birender Singh

29 May 2017

Highlighting the achievements of Ministry of Steel in the last three years, Union Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh said steel ministry will rate the ranking of Top-50 Secondary Steel/Smart Producers and will give awards on the criterion of their products of BIS standards and cost effectiveness.

“Enlisting new Schemes for Secondary Steel Producers in 2017-18, he said that the steel ministry will rate the ranking of Top-50 Secondary Steel/Smart Producers and awards will for best performing plants in secondary steel sector solely on the criterion of their products of BIS standards and cost effectiveness,” the Ministry said in a release.

The Minister said that GST regime is good for Steel Team as Goods & Services Tax Rates and Slabs for raw materials like iron ore, manganese; coal etc. is in the bracket of 5 %. Semi-finished and unfinished goods are in 18 % bracket. Steel industry will see a reduction in the input cost for steel making with the GST implementation.

The Minister was confident that steel sector will become more vibrant and dynamic after the ‘National Steel Policy 2017’ and ‘Policy for preference to domestically manufactured iron & steel products in government procurement’ becomes effective.

The roadmap to implement the new policies will be finalized in the next six months to one year.

Speaking of the SPU REVIVAL, he said that the three Steel Processing Units, Jagdishpur in UP, Bettiah in Bihar and Kangra in Himachal Pradesh are going to be operationalized within the next one year. This involves an investment of Rs. 500 crores. These units will produce value-added products like crash barriers, black pipes, TMT bars or GC sheets.

Singh said that Steel industry needs to go for a paradigm shift and move from semi-finished/crude steel to value-added steel. This will lead to better margins and improve competitiveness.

“We are hopeful that SAIL & ArcelorMittal would soon formalize the Joint Venture for production of automotive-grade steel. This will be a big step-forward under the Prime Minister’s Make in India Programme” Singh added.

India has emerged as a net exporter of steel in the year 2016-17, with 97% increase in overall exports and a 37% decline in imports of steel products over the same period in the previous year.

While India roars on the world stage through its Make in India campaign, It plans to increase steel capacity to 300 million tonnes and per capita steel consumption to a level of 158 Kgs by 2030-31.

Source – knnindia