Despite a slowdown in the steel sector domestically as well as globally, there are bright chances for the industry to stage a recovery soon, according to P Madhusudan, Chairman and Managing Director of the Visakhapatnam steel plant (Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd).

He was speaking at a seminar on ‘Long products-technology, market and applications’ organised by Steel and Metallurgy here on Thursday.

He said: “the Indian steel industry has a lot of resilience to withstand such vicissitudes and the sector has young manpower and the latest technologies to compete in the world markets.” However, right now the industry is facing many challenges like inadequate infrastructure and logistics, high capital cost, high cost of power and fuel, non-availability of quality coal, increased input costs, and operational efficiency in product development. He said these challenges could be, and should be, met.

As India is one of the fastest growing economies, steel consumption will grow in rural and urban areas. He said the Government’s intervention is highly needed at this point to support the steel industry by reducing the customs duty and curbing cheap steel imports. Madhusudan called for adoption of the best available technologies and stressed the need to invest more in research and development.

Y Sivasagara Rao, former CMD of RINL, said India should compete with China by reducing imports and increasing exports, and by improving techno-economic parameters and reducing the cost of production. Value-added products should be developed to substitute imports and increase the revenues. In no case, production should be reduced and volumes should be increased to become competitive, he said.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW