India’s Steel Makers: New policy for Domestic Steel Sector plans to treble India’s steel production capacity by 2030

Mumbai, May 4, 2017: The cabinet passed a new policy for domestic steel sector on Wednesday and aims to increase steel production three times to reach the mark of 300 million tonnes by 2030. Earlier in

To protect the industry from cheaper imports, earlier in 2016, the government has taken few protectionist steps for this sector by introducing Minimum Import Duty (MIP) to protect domestic market from cheaper steel imports.

The latest policy focuses on increasing steel production by three times of the current production. However, it is not quite clear in the policy as to how the set targets will be achieved. But the policy definitely puts the major steel manufacturers like JSPl, JSW in a sweet spot towards growth as the demand can rise to 5-6 percent in the current year. The overall infrastructure of the country is also supposed to see a high as one of the main objectives of this policy, mentioned livemint.com report.

Abhisar Jain, an analyst at Centrum Broking Pvt. Ltd says "Per se, it (the policy) is positive for the steel sector and from point of view of infrastructure creation that the government aspires for in the period."

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According to Jain, the policy also seems to increase the per capita consumption of steel to 160 kgs as against current consumption of 60 kgs, highlighting the fact that the government aims at promoting steel industry in domestic as well as housing arena.

However, how the policy will be implemented will decide the ultimate impact of this policy.
Here it is pertinent to be noted that earlier the steel production had been rising at a rate of 55 million tonnes every year and the current set targets are quite high as compared.

Hence, there are speculations whether the new targets will be realised or not. However, the Steel Producers of the nation along with Indian PM seem quite optimistic.

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"The National Steel policy will ensure high-quality steel production, boost domestic consumption and create a globally competitive steel industry," Prime Minister Modi tweeted. Uppal said to livemint.com, JSPL is commissioning a 6 million tonne steel plant in Angul, Odisha, in a few weeks. "We now feel more confident that the government is backing up the industry."

"There is a lot of headroom for us to grow because steel consumption in India is 60 kg compared with the global average of 210 kg… For achieving 160 kg the current capacity is inadequate and the government is taking a two-pronged action—one is stimulating growth of demand and other is backing it up with adequate supply… If everything comes from China and Korea we will miss the opportunity of growing our own steel industry," Uppal said.

– prepared by Nikita Tayal of NewsGram, Twitter: @NikitaTayal6