India: Steel Ministry clarifies Re-bar quality norms for govt projects

The Ministry of Steel (MoS) has dashed off a letter to the Union Ministry of Road Transport & Highways (MoRTH) highlighting the grievances of small and medium steel producers about discrimination in steel purchase for government projects.

The letter dated 12 Jan’21, a copy of which is with SteelMint, underlined certain discriminatory guidelines laid down earlier by both the Central Public Works Department (CPWD) and MoRTH related to purchase of thermo mechanically treated (TMT) steel bars (IS:1786) for government projects.

Earlier notifications issued by the CPWD and MoRTH stipulated that only BF-BOF, COREX-BOF and/or DRI-EAF producers who produced steel through the virgin iron ore route would be eligible to supply reinforcement bars.

Vide a circular in Dec’20, MoRTH mandated that secondary steel producers would be eligible to supply rebars for roads and highways provided they were rolled from billets (IS:2830) produced “directly from iron ore and not from shredded scrap and sponge iron as basic feedstock”. Likewise the CPWD had mandated in Dec’19 that EAF capacity of producers should at least be 100 MT or more for them to be eligible to participate in government procurement processes.

In this backdrop, the recent clarifications issued by the MoS are as under:

• Routes of steel production have no bearing on the quality of steel produced.
• Use of scrap/DRI instead of iron ore does in no way affect quality provided the products manufactured conform to BIS standards that have been made mandatory for most steel products through successive Steel Quality Control Orders issued by MoS.
• Scrap, DRI usage should be encouraged as an eco-friendly alternative to sintering and coking integral to the BF-BOF route.
• MoS has abolished the distinction between primary and secondary steel producers through an order issued in Aug’16.
• Size of the furnace doesn’t determine the quality of steel products.
• End-users in the infrastructure and construction sectors should get quality concerns addressed by insisting on BIS norms that specify all chemical and physical requirements for TMT bars much like other steel products.

Link to the letter