The Indian Govt is planning to come up with a policy under which it will be mandatory for government projects to use Indian steel only. The steel ministry is doing its part to help improve the anemic steel demand growth in the country.
At a recently-held Parliamentary Consultative Committee meeting, steel minister Mr Birender Singh said that talks are going on with concerned ministries for introduction of a policy to make it mandatory to use Indian made steel for all infrastructure and construction projects of the government.
Trying to capitalise on the durability of steel compared with other materials, the minister also wants a modification in the general financial rules to include life cycle cost analysis in design and planning stage in public projects.
The minister also said that new avenues for usage of steel are being explored in areas like bridges, containers, water tanks and crash barriers among the like. Talks have been initiated with state governments to enhance the usage of steel.
Though there has been a substantial growth in steel production in the country during the current fiscal, consumption growth has remained subdued mainly because of the poor off-take by the end-use segments like construction and automobiles.
Growing imports had been a headache for the industry, but no longer, following a series of tariff and non-tariff steps taken by the ministry. Poor consumption has been hampering both the top-line and bottom-line for the industry which owes a huge amount of money with the banking system.
With the aim of promoting steel usage, Singh has constituted four committees with representatives from various stakeholders with the mandate of formulating codes and standards, life cycle cost analysis and sustainability, development of designs of various utility structures and skill development in the steel sector.
Four task forces have also been constituted for increasing steel usage in railways, urban development, road transport and highways and ship building sector.
Rural housing has also been identified as a target area by the ministry to promote usage of steel. The ministry is approaching concerned authorities to share advantages of steel houses like less erection time, more durability, better flexibility and eco-friendliness. Presentations with prototype designs have been made to key officials of rural development ministry.
India’s per capital steel consumption is way below the world average though being the 3rd largest producer of steel in the world. The ministry, however, is targeting, in the new national steel policy, to enhance the per capital consumption to 160 Kg by 2030-31 from the current level of 61 kg.
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