In 2015, total world crude steel production was 1,599.5 million metric tons (mmt). The biggest steel producing country is currently China, which accounted for 50.3% of world steel production in 2015. Though global recession may have caused a fall in the production of steel in some countries.
The Indian cabinet on a recent proposal on Wednesday, working to enhance the economy of the country and to promote good ground of manufacturing sector for steel production, may have also concluded to make the usage of local steel mandatory for government’s infrastructure projects, this was made known to the public by an official with direct knowledge of the matter who said, this development is aimed at boosting sales of local companies and global steel makers’ investments within and all part of the country.
The ministry’s flagship of National Steel Policy, being the authorities seeks to outline a roadmap to increase the country’s annual steel production to 300 million tons by 2025, which gave rise to the expectation of this proposal to be passed in the cabinet, the official told Reuters that this will be taking place within a short while for this very operation to start.
Its known that country like china where about 50.3% of the world’s steel production is coming from, is standing on a height of motivation for other countries like India,
The policy of making the local steel products a mandatory for manufacturing and use in governments projects could easily be seen as a continuation of India’s protectionist stance against countries such as China and Russia for the quest to rise up to the standard and possibly take the place of the highest steel producing country in the world
The very desire of India is to triple its production capacity by the next decade and acquire technology to produce higher value products including automotive steel.
An official with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters earlier that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet might clear the proposals.
The government policy will also provide a guiding light for Indian steel companies that are seeking to expand while saddled with huge debts. For the local producers to expand their reach, the country will be taking a strong position to assist and encourage and also be providing some relief plans through debts of any kind.
India is also expected to soon announce long-term duties on some steel products imported from China, Japan and Russia, despite complaints from some of the targeted countries.
Between April and March, for India’s steel production to grow, there has been fall on imports to at least about 37 percent year-on-year, and as recorded by the data from a government body, this came primarily due to measures announced by the government.
The proposed National Steel Policy, which was floated in October by Niti Aayog, an influential government think-tank that replaced the Planning Commission, came up with the recommendation to also reduce dependence on imported coking coal, as this has in recent happening crippled production after heavy rain in Australia.
India’s cabinet on Wednesday approved a proposal to make the use of local steel mandatory for government’s infrastructure projects, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, and it’s aimed at boosting the sales by the local companies. It also comes in the backdrop of a trade probe launched by U.S. President Donald Trump against cheap imports into the United States, in a move that could aggravate trade friction among global producers.
LOCAL STEEL INDUSTRIES TO GAIN A NEW GROUND
