“Enhancing steel intensity in the user sector is really very close to the heart of the steel ministry. It wants to enhance production of steel and, at the same time, the ministry is also concerned about enhancing the usage of steel,’ emphasized Rasika Chaube, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Steel, Government of India, at the Global Steel Summit 2021 organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
She further said that this is also enshrined in the National Steel Policy of 2017, wherein on one side, the government is working towards achieving the 300 million tonnes (mn t) target by 2030 and at the same time it wants demand and finished steel consumption to also touch around 250 mn t by 2030.
‘Similarly, for the per capita steel consumption which is currently at 70 kg per person, we expect it to become 160 kg per person,” she said.
While sharing data on the impact of the pandemic and how the steel industry has fared in it, Chaube said, “There is no doubt that when the pandemic hit us at the beginning of the financial year 2021, steel production went down substantially to 3.2 mn t in April and then up to around 6 mn t in May, June, and July. There was a depression, so demand which generally stays at 8-9 mn t, dipped to 1 mn t in April, touched around 4 mn t, then 6 mn t.”
She further said, “crude steel production which generally stays between 9.5 to 9.8 mn t every month also fell significantly. But, the pandemic impact was very limited and it stayed for only four months from April till July. Thereafter, the entire industry bounced back, along with the users.”
“In December, January and February, demand and production both crossed the previous year’s numbers. In fact, we saw production of 10 million tonnes in various months and the industry was able to handle the situation,” she added.
She further said the steel industry has more or less bounced back at levels that would have been before the pandemic and we are doing better than that. Notwithstanding that, there is a lot of scope for enhancing steel intensity and the ministry is working on this on a regular basis. Steel consumption needs to grow but in tandem with production, she insisted.
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