Year Long campaign to promote use of steel announced

The Minister for Steel, Chemicals and Fertilisers Shri Ram Vilas Paswan has said that the policy on export of Iron ore should be finalised taking the domestic demand into consideration. Shri Paswan was speaking here today at a press conference to launch a promotional campaign for increasing consumption of steel in the country. He said, the domestic consumption of iron ore and production of steel is on the rise.

The Minister said the production target for 2010, which was fixed at 65 million tonnes, has been hiked to 80 million tonnes. 156 MOUs have been signed for setting up of new steel projects at a cost of over Rs. 4,00,000 crore. This will result in capacity addition to the extent of 175 million tonnes. Shri Paswan said the Steel Authority of India has also an expansion plan worth Rs. 41,000 crore. All this will catapult India to the 2nd largest steel producer in the world by 2015 from the current level of being the 7th largest steel producer.

The Minister said that the current level of steel consumption is quite low at around 39 Kgs per person compared to the global average of 170 Kgs. The consumption of steel in rural India remains one of the lowest at 2 Kgs per person. He said the campaign to promote steel is basically to increase the use of steel from bridges and buildings to rural amenities. Steel, he said, is eco friendly and can be recycled easily.

Shri Paswan said the public sector companies are increasing their number of stockyards and also the number of dealers at district level, which will help in reaching steel products to rural areas at affordable cost.

The promotion campaign coordinated by the Institute for Steel Development & Growth (INSDAG) will continue for a year. It will be funded by the Ministry of Steel and all major steel producers of the country. The Secretary, Ministry of Steel, Shri R.S. Pandey and Industry leaders were present on the occasion.

Source : Press Information Bureau

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