The Centre’s Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme to promote the manufacturing of speciality steel is anticipated to attract an additional investment of Rs 27,106 crore with downstream capacity creation of around 25 million tonnes, the Parliament was informed on Tuesday.
Specialty steel refers to value-added steel products, processed through methods like coating, plating, or heat treatment, to meet specific properties required in sectors like defence, space, power and automobiles.
Minister of State for Steel and Heavy Industries Bhupathiraju Srinivasa Varma told the Lok Sabha that the government has taken various measures to facilitate the reduction of steel imports and to improve the competitiveness of domestic steel manufacturers.
These include the introduction of steel Quality Control Orders which have banned sub-standard steel products in the domestic market as well as imports to ensure the availability of quality steel to the industry, users and public at large.
The Steel Import Monitoring System (SIMS) has been revamped and SIMS 2.0 was launched in July last year for more effective monitoring of imports to address the concerns of domestic steel industry, he pointed out.
The minister also said that anti-dumping duty measures pertaining to some steel products like seamless tubes, pipes and hollow profiles of iron, alloy, or non-alloy steel (other than cast iron and stainless steel) (from China), electro-galvanised steel (from South Korea, Japan, Singapore), stainless-steel seamless tubes and pipes (from China), welded stainless steel pipes and tubes (from Vietnam and Thailand) are in place currently.
He further stated that Countervailing Duty has been imposed for welded stainless steel pipes and tubes from China and Vietnam.
The minister also said that there are sufficient reserves of iron ore in the country to meet the current demand by the domestic steel industry. The production of iron ore in FY 2024 was more than 270 million tons and the exports were approximately 46 million tons while the import was 4.9 million tons, he added.
Besides, the government has taken various steps to increase the supply of minerals which include, inter-alia, Mining and Mineral Policy reforms to ensure enhanced production, early auction & operationalisation of mines with expired leases, ease of doing business, seamless transfer of all valid rights & approvals, incentivizing for starting of mining operation & dispatch, transferring of mining leases, allowing captive mines to sell up to 50 per cent of the minerals produced and enhancing the exploration activities, the minister said.
The government has also notified the Steel Scrap Recycling Policy in November 2019. The policy provides a framework to facilitate and promote the establishment of metal scrapping centres in India for scientific processing and recycling of ferrous scrap generated from various sources, he added.
(With inputs from IANS)
