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New steel policy soon: Union Minister

Published: 23rd Apr 2017 8:40 pm

Visakhapatnam: The Central Government will announce a new steel policy soon after obtaining the Cabinet clearance, according to Union Minister for Steel Chaudhary Birender Singh.

The policy would address many of the issues pending for a long time and propel the country to achieving the target of 300 million tonnes of production by 2030, he told reporters at the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant here on Sunday evening towards the end of his two-day visit to the plant and the city.

The Cabinet note was being prepared to make the use of steel made in the country compulsory in Government projects, he revealed. The Minister asked the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant to take advantage of the huge demand for steel in the several projects being taken up by the Andhra Pradesh Government in the wake of bifurcation, particularly in the construction of the new capital Amaravati.

He praised the Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (VSP) for completing the expansion project and said the plant had a great advantage in having two ports in its vicinity. The plant was moving towards achieving international standards of efficiency.

Earlier, the Minister inaugurated 120 MW gas-based power plant in the plant executed at a cost of Rs 677 crores. The power plant uses blast furnace gases. The Minister said it was also a green initiative.

Speaking on the occasion, he said that there was a perceptual change in the consumption of coal because of the setting up more non-conventional power plants in the country using Wind energy, Solar energy etc.

Around 1 lakh MW of power was being generated in the country from non-conventional energy sources and that around 3 lakh applications were received for setting up of solar/wind power plants in the country. He said that RINL was working on CRGO (Cold Rolled Grain Oriented) technology which adds to the reputation of the Company to boost exports.

RINL Chairman-cum-Managing Director P. Madhusudan said the most advanced technologies were used in setting up the power plant and the steel plant had achieved self-sufficiency in power generation.

https://telanganatoday.news/new-steel-policy-soon-union-minister

‘Made in India’ steel to be mandatory in govt. projects

VISAKHAPATNAM APRIL 24, 2017 00:00 IST

‘National policy will focus on rising per capita consumption’

Making use of ‘Made in India’ steel compulsory in all government/PSU-funded projects, raising per capita consumption from 61 kg to 160 kg, and increasing production from 120 million tonne to 300 million tonne by 2030 are the focus areas in the National Policy on Steel to be released shortly, according to Union Minister for Steel Chaudhary Birender Singh.

After reviewing the performance of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) here on Sunday, he told reporters that stringent measures like imposing anti-dumping duty and minimum import price (MIP) had led to fall in imports by 39% and increase in exports by 57%. Mr. Singh said the National Policy on Steel would be unveiled after receiving approval of the Union Cabinet.

A Cabinet note had already been prepared to make compulsory the use of India-made steel in all the infrastructure, housing, and other projects by the Central and State governments and PSUs. The Union Minister said that the per capita steel consumption had remained at 61 kg against the global average of 204 kg, and opined that if the locally made steel was consumed, automatically the per capita consumption would go up significantly.

Expressing concern over dumping of cheap steel in the domestic market, which was causing heavy stress on the steel industry, he said that the steps taken by the NDA Government had brought about a visible change in the past few months.

He said they had also decided to make BIS marking compulsory for secondary and other steel producers.

http://www.thehindu.com/todays-pape...andatory-in-govt-projects/article18198056.ece

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