By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: The total number of steel plants in the country is 977. In the public sector, work is currently going on in NMDC Steel Plant in Nagarnar, Chhattisgarh which is a Greenfield steel plant. Steel is a deregulated sector where market forces and commercial considerations decide construction of new steel plants.The import of steel has increased marginally in the last 3 years from 7.23 Million Tonnes in 2016-17 to 7.84 Million Tonnes in 2018-19, said Union Steel and PNG Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan.
The Indian steel industry has over the years, undertaken cost effective and environment friendly production of steel through adoption of state-of-the-art technologies and research. The Indian steel industry is addressing the energy & environment issues through the adoption of energy efficient & environment friendly technologies in the plants through technological upgradation/modernisation/expansion. These measures undertaken by the Indian steel industry have also resulted in improvement in energy efficiency and reduction in Green House Gas (GHG) emission.
While steel companies are themselves addressing the issues, Ministry of Steel has facilitated improvement in the energy & environment scenario of steel plants through various mechanisms. Ministry of Steel is providing financial assistance to the industry, CSIR laboratories & academia for carrying out research in the iron & steel sector.
Ministry of Steel has also facilitated adoption of the technologies for harnessing waste heat and reducing carbon footprint in the integrated steel plants in collaboration with Government of Japan. Ministry of Steel has also facilitated adoption of technologies for enhancing energy efficiency and reducing carbon footprint in the smaller steel plants in association with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
There are two training institutes under the administrative control of Ministry of Steel i.e. Biju Patnaik National Steel Institute (BPNSI), Puri, Odisha and National Institute of Secondary Steel Technology (NISST), Mandi Gobindgarh, Punjab. These Institutes conduct short term training, workshops/ seminars in the field of steel technology.
