Birender Singh urges MECON to play a key role in enhancing steel consumption in India

16 October  2017

Steel Minister Birender Singh has urged engineering consultancy firm MECON to play a key role in enhancing steel consumption in India by working on steel-intensive structures and showcasing advantages of using steel in major construction projects.

With steel production capacity envisaged to go up to 300 million tonne production by 2030, stepping up steel exports is very crucial and the company can contribute in this by application engineering and market development, he In this connection, new avenues for using steel like crash barriers, railway sleepers, food grain silos, electric poles, underpass structures etc. must be explored immediately to enhance steel consumption across the country, he felt.

The minister’s remarks came during a mid-year review meeting with top management of MECON, a PSU under Ministry of Steel. The meeting was held in the presence of steel secretary Steel Aruna Sharma and senior officials from the ministry.

In his opening remarks, Singh said, MECON must utilize its rich experience and expertise in the metallurgical engineering to enhance capacity utilization and product improvement by steel PSUs. The minister added that the company must constantly try to improve and fix physical and financial targets in tune with the times. While the company can explore diversifying its other businesses for top line improvement, it must give due attention to its primary mandate of enabling growth of manufacturing, innovation and technology in India. In particular, MECON can play a big role in “Make in India” initiative in collaboration with capital goods and machinery manufacturers and steel producers, especially in the secondary sector, he added.

Source: ET