By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR: Union Minister for Steel-PNG Dharmendra Pradhan in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday said that the Government has taken steps to ramp up production of iron ore and steel to increase their domestic availability to bridge the demand-supply mismatch leading to increase in prices of iron and steel in recent months.
In a de-regulated, open market scenario, the domestic steel price is determined by market forces of demand and supply, trends in prices of raw materials and is also influenced by global conditions. Various factors contributing to increase in prices inter alia include increase in price of iron ore following its reduced availability with the production of iron ore in current FY being only 112 MT up to November, 2020 as compared to 152 MT during CPLY mainly due to non-operationalization of 13 working mining leases in Odisha, post their auction in March, 2020.
Measures taken by the Government to increase availability of iron ore inter alia include Mining and Mineral Policy reforms to enhance production/availability of iron ore, ramping up production and maximum capacity utilisation by government mining companies, grant of permission to SAIL to sell 25% fresh fines and 70 MT dumps and tailings, accelerating auction of iron-ore fines by SAIL and early operationalisation of forfeited working mines of Odisha by the State and Central PSUs etc.
The measures taken by the Government to boost steel production in light of the COVID-19 lockdown are as following:-Ministry of Steel has held several rounds of consultations during the lockdown period with various stakeholders including industry associations and leaders of domestic steel industry to address their issues by taking up the same with the concerned Ministries/Departments of the Central Government and State Governments.
Ministry of Steel also notified a nodal officer in the Ministry to receive representations from the steel industry on issues arising out of lock down for speedy redressal. Guidelines issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs from time to time have facilitated speedy resumption of steel production. The Ministry of Steel has also organized the following Webinars with relevant stakeholders to enhance the overall demand for steel in the country:
Oil and Gas Sector, 16th June, 2020.Ispati Irada, Enhancing Steel Usage, 30th June, 2020.
Housing and Civil Aviation Sector, 18th August, 2020.Agriculture, Rural Development, Dairying and Food Processing Sectors, 20thOctober 2020.Domestically Manufactured Iron & Steel Products (DMI&SP) Policy, has been suitably amended vide notification dated 31st December, 2020, in order to align it to the revised Public Procurement (Preference to Make in India) Order 2017. The minimum value addition has been enhanced from 15% to 20% and the policy is now applicable to all procurement above Rupees 5 lakhs and includes EPC contracts among other changes.Steel being a deregulated sector, decisions relating to setting up of steel units are taken by individual steel producers in private or public sector, based on commercial consideration and market dynamics.
The total number of steel plants producing crude steel in the country during 2019-20 is 914. In the public sector, work is currently going on in NMDC Steel Plant in Nagarnar, Chhattisgarh, which is a Greenfield steel plant.Import of steel has reduced in the last three years whereas domestic steel production has been increasing except during the current year following the Covid-19 pandemic. Import of certain steel grades which are not manufactured or manufactured in adequate quantity in the country is made for supporting the manufacturing sector as well as the country’s export of machinery, automobiles etc.
