New Delhi, Feb 17 (KNN) The Steel Ministry is examining the feasibility of setting up scrap-based steel plants in India.

The Steel Ministry is trying that   “Indian  Made  Steel”  can  be defined in the light of existing Public Procurement Bill.

This will provide for mandatory procurement from domestic bidders on the grounds of promoting domestic industry. Basically the aim is to emphasize lower life cycle costing while evaluating projects, rather than just looking at the upfront cost alone, Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh said.

International linkages for raw materials and markets make the industry dependent on changing trends in world steel market, said Singh said at the ‘Make in Steel’ Conference.

Employment-multiplier effect of steel is around 7 times, that is, with increase in output, steel industry has the potential to create 7 times the job opportunities, in upward and downward industries, the Minister pointed.

“In draft National Steel Policy that was put up in public domain recently, we aim to more than double the capacity to 300 million tonnes. That means an investment to the tune of Rs. 10 lakh crore,” Singh said.

He said there should be work done towards meeting the entire domestic demand of high-grade automotive steel, electrical steel and special steels from domestic production.

These products constitute a major portion of the steel imports in India, the Minister added.

The Ministry is examining the feasibility of setting up scrap-based steel plants in India. These will be on the lines of ‘Melt & Manufacture’ steel technology in USA.

Scrap-based steel plants are environment-friendly, energy-efficient and cost-effective. These will have the capability to produce special high-quality steels, a pre-requisite for Make in Steel.

He asked the stakeholders to deliberate on the cost-benefit analysis of setting up scrap based steel plants in North and West India.

These regions  are  important  from  the  perspective  of scrap-availability and steel import hubs.

MSTC-Mahindra Intertrade state-of-the-art Auto Shredding Plant is likely to be functional in 2018, he said.

India imports around 6 million tonnes of scrap steel every year and is the second largest importer of scrap after Turkey. By 2025, we will be able to generate 7.5 million tonnes of scrap every year. 

Research& Development in Indian Steel industry is dismal, he said.

Whatever little R&D is being done is scattered and isolated. At one hand, there is overlapping & duplication of research efforts, at the other, no research is being done on future requirements of the industry. We are happy and contented with token R&D here and there, he added.