Mumbai, Apr 20 (Agency) India emerged as the second largest steel producer in the world with per capita steel consumption having gone up from 57 kilos to 78 kilos during last nine years, said Minister of Steel Jyotiraditya Scindia on Wednesday. Talking at inaugural session of three-day conference organised jointly by his department and industry body FICCI, he said that the Ministry has signed 57 MoUs (memoranda of understanding) with 27 companies for specialty steel under the PLI (production linked incentive) scheme, which is expected to generate investment of about Rs 30,000 crore and create additional capacity of about 25 mt (million tonnes) of specialty steel in next five years. This will also act as a multiplier to create more than 60,000 jobs for our Amrit Pidi and contribute towards achieving the goal of becoming the third largest economy by 2030-31, he was quoted as saying in a press release here. Scindia further said, “The Steel Ministry is in the process of aligning up policies with the Gati Shakti Master Plan, which will complement the Rs 100 lakh crore investment plan for infrastructure development over next five years.
This will boost the demand of steel in various sectors, thereby enhancing steel usage.” Talking about various technologies being developed such as hydrogen-based steel making as demonstrated by hybrid plant in Sweden and hisarnar technology by Tata Steel Europe coupled with CCUS that holds huge promise, he said, “The commercialisation of these technologies might take some time.” Speaking on the occasion, Faggan Singh Kulaste, Minister of State in the Ministry of Steel, said, “For the last eight-nine years, all kinds of meaningful solutions have been received from many such conferences and the Ministry of Steel is providing new heights to the steel industry by implementing such suggestions and solutions. This is the reason that in 2013-14, where steel production capacity was about 100 million tonnes and crude steel production was about 82 million tonnes, in 2022-23 the steel production capacity was 154 million tonnes and crude steel production was 125 million tonnes.” “This historic growth has been possible due to the business-friendly policy, reforms and transparency in the steel sector of our Government, under the guidance of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and under the leadership of our Minister Jyotiraditya M Scindia. I have full confidence that we will achieve the targets set in the National Steel Policy by 2030-31,” he added.