indo-asian news service, Bangalore, July 7: Union minister of steel and mines Narendra Singh Tomar Tuesday said Indian steel production reached the third highest position in the first five months of 2015. The minister also said that the steel industry grew at more than eight per cent during 2014-15.
“So far, India was the fourth largest steel producer in the world only after China, Japan and the US. However, during the first five months of this calendar year, India has achieved the third position in the global steel production,” said Tomar at a meeting here of the parliamentary consultative committee attached to his ministry.
“India envisages achieving a steel production of 300 million tones by 2025 and the steel ministry is working out an action plan and strategies to achieve this target,” said Tomar.
He said the older steel plants are being modernised and expanded and highlighted that Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently opened India’s largest blast furnace with a capacity of 4,160 cubic metres at IISCO steel plant in Burnpur, West Bengal.
To sustain the long-term growth of the Indian steel industry, “problems in raw material area need to be addressed to utilize low grade ore and high ash coal through research and development (R&D) and technology interventions,” Tomar said.
He said Indian steel industry’s R&D should focus on producing value added products to lessen imports.
