New national steel policy to be finalised soon: Verma

Update: 2013-11-16 21:53 GMT
Steel Ministry is finalising a new national steel policy (NSP) focusing on infrastructure development, securitisation of raw-materials and human resource development for growth of the industry, Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma said on Friday at Assocham 7th India Steel Summit.
'There is a need for utilisation of lean ore, improving product mix and better logistics,’ he noted.

Verma further added that the Indian steel industry needs to invest more in research and development. He also added that the transportation of raw material through slurry pipelines could be good alternate solution for movement of inputs.

Logistic is another area of concern, in addition to developing rail, road and port connectivity, transportation of raw materials through slurry pipelines can address this problem effectively.

Steel secretary  G  Mohan Kumar said that India needs to invest heavily in developing technologies for product developments – many varieties of ally steels which are required for the fast growing manufacturing sector.
‘Our efforts are plant based and narrow in focus, he added.

Speaking on the occasion, country’s largest steel producing company,   SAIL chairman C S Verma said that the Indian steel industry may face huge shortage of skilled workers by 2025 with the gap going up to as much as 60 per cent.
India, which currently has steel-manufacturing capacity of around 90 million tonnes per annum (mtpa), targets to more than treble the capacity to 300 mtpa by 2025.

According to projections, Verma said there would be demand for 105 lakh skilled workers in domestic steel industry compared to the supply of 41 lakh by 2025.

‘Steel companies need to come together for deploying fund for building up infrastructure for higher educational and vocational training,’ C S Verma said.

The SAIL chairman also said more than $200 billion would be required by the steel industry by 2025 for envisaged capacity addition and as such, dedicated financial institution was required for expansion of the steel industry.

‘We cannot be satisfied by the journey covered by Indian steel industry till now and remain happy about the potential of our steel industry.’
‘We need to be prepared to traverse this journey taking all the stakeholders along with us in the exciting journey of the steel industry to reach 300 MT by 2025,’ he said.

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