New Delhi, Dec 28 (FN Agency) Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for speciality steel would result in capacity addition of 25 MT, additional investments of about Rs 40,000 crore and employment generation of 5.25 lakh, said Steel Ministry on Tuesday. The government has cleared PLI scheme for domestic production of speciality steel with an outlay of Rs 6,322 crore and notified detailed guidelines.
Highlighting its achievements in 2021, the Ministry said that cumulative capital expenditure (capex) by state-run steel companies for April-November of the current fiscal stands at Rs 5,781.1 crore, up 75.7% over corresponding period last year. “The capex for April-November, 2021 was 43.5% of the BE (Budget Estimate) target,” it said. Alongside, the Ministry has been taking various measures to increase steel usage across various sectors in the country. As part of the exercise, it formed a Committee of experts from INSDAG, IITs, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) and industry experts for development of designs for long span (30m, 35m, and 40m) steel based bridges. Further, the design for 30m is being vetted by the experts for finalisation. The Committee formed jointly with Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas to prepare a roadmap for promoting domestically produced steel in Oil and Gas Sector has submitted the final report in August, 2021.
“A Joint Working Group (JWG), having members from Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (HUA), Ministry of Skill Development, Ministry of Steel, BIS, CPWD, Technical Institutions (IITs) and from Industry, has also been set up for fostering steel usage in Housing and Construction sector to develop standardized design and layouts of housing configurations with steel structure,” the Steel Ministry said. As regards timely payment to MSMEs for their supplies, the Steel Ministry said that it is monitoring payments by public sector steel companies on weekly basis. “During April-November 2021, Steel CPSEs have made a payment of Rs 3,358.61 crore to MSMEs which is 64.5% higher than payment of Rs 2,041.61 crore made during CPLY (corresponding period last year),” it said. The production performance of Steel sector during the first 8 months of the current fiscal has been quite encouraging with cumulative production of crude steel at 76.44 MT and finished steel at 72.07 MT during April-November, 2021 being higher than that in the similar period during the previous three years. “This improved performance was achieved despite the adverse effect of second wave of COVID-19 and concomitant localised lockdowns,” the Ministry said.