New Delhi: The Steel Ministry will soon seek the Cabinet nod for its new policy that envisages Rs 10 lakh crore investment for creating capacity in the sector that is currently reeling under weak demand and a surge in raw material prices.
"As far the steel policy is concerned we would be having it very shortly," Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh told PTI. The ministry had uploaded the draft policy on the website, seeking suggestions from the stakeholders.
"We have already received the suggestions and we are ready," the minister said. Keeping in mind that in the next 50 years steel demand would grow in India and South East Asia, the government has chalked out strategies ensuring that the steel production also increases, he said.
He expressed concern that per capita steel consumption in the country is very low compared to the rest of the world and said "we have made a lot of provisions" to address that situation.
India's per capita steel consumption at 61 kg is much lower than the global average of 208 kg or that of other major steel producing countries (China at 489 kg and South Korea at 1114 kg).
The secondary steel sector which accounts for almost half the steel produced in India, he said, was very important now.
Recognising limited availability of metallurgical coal as a 'disadvantage' for Indian steel sector, the draft steel policy also aims at increasing supply of domestic coking coal to cut dependence on imports by half and a production of 300 million tonnes of the alloy by 2030-31.
The global coking coal price, which was at USD 80 per tonne in January last year, rose to USD 283 per tonne in December, according to Indian Steel Association Secretary General Sanak Mishra.
In early January, however, global price of metallurgical coal came down to USD 193 per tonne, still more than double of last year.
