The Hindu Business Line : Govt setting up steel research mission

Kolkata, Aug. 10 A National Steel Development Research Mission is going to be set up soon jointly by public and private sector steel majors. It will have a corpus of Rs 60-65 crore that would be contributed by the steel companies. The proposed Steel Development Research Mission will be engaged in research and development in steel keeping in view the huge expansion plans of the domestic steel sector.

Facilities at existing institutions would be leveraged to promote R&D in the steel sector, Mr R.S. Pandey, Secretary in the Union Ministry of Steel, said at a ‘National Seminar on Opportunities in the Steel Industry’ that was organised here today by the Confederation of Indian Industry (Eastern Region).

Domestic output

Mr Pandey said that, in the first quarter of the current fiscal, domestic steel production had grown by 12 per cent. The domestic steel production target had been pegged at 80 million tonnes (mt) during the 11th Plan. This was expected to go up to 120 mt by 2015-16, and 200 mt by 2019-2020.

Over the next 15 years, an investment of Rs 600,000 crore was expected to be made in the domestic steel sector. This would necessitate adequate focus on infrastructure that would be required by a growing steel industry.

Mr Pandey stressed upon the importance of raw materials security of the steel industry. In this context, he said a joint venture company, with Steel Authority of India Ltd, Coal India Ltd, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd, National Mineral Development Corporation and National Thermal Power Corporation as partners, would be formed for acquiring raw material assets in different parts of the globe. A special purpose vehicle would be floated towards this end.

Manpower shortage

Speaking on the occasion, Mr S.K. Roongta, Chairman and Managing Director, SAIL, said it would be imperative to ensure that the growth of the steel sector should take place in a cost-effective manner.

The steel industry, he said, was faced with a shortage of the “right kind of manpower”. It would be important to address this issue in view of the fact that, by 2015, India would become the second-largest producer of steel in the world, from fifth-largest at present.

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