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Steel is hot

The year 2009 has truly proved steely for India. According to government figures, India emerged as the fourth largest steel producer in the world with production of 46.77 million tonnes of crude steel during the period January-October, 2009.
Moreover, if all requirements for adding fresh capacity are sufficiently met, India could become the 2nd largest producer of crude steel in the world by 2015. India also recorded an increase 2.1% in 2008-2009 over 2007-08 in terms of sale of sponge iron thus maintaining its position as the world's largest producer of direct reduced iron (DRI).
While the National Steel Policy 2005 had projected a crude steel production capacity of 110 million tonnes of crude steel by 2019-20, at current rate the country is likely to achieve a crude steel production capacity of 124 million tonnes by the year 2012.
It would be appropriate to say that this steely performance also owes its due to some of the key initiatives taken by the Steel Ministry during the year.

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COMMENT Comment on this article

This includes i) Administrative and fiscal action to manage inflation in the steel sector ii) Meetings of the Inter Ministerial Group (IMG) to monitor and coordinate various issues concerning major steel investments in the country. iii) A ausrvey which shows that the present per capita consumption in the country is only around 47 kg (2008) against the world average of 190 kg and that of 400 kg in developed countries. iv) Mega Expansion Plans of SAIL, RINL & NMDC Ltd.v) Plans to set up Steel Processing Units by SAIL at various locations to meet customers’ demand for supplying sized and finished steel near the point of consumption, particularly in states where there are no steel plants and where steel consumption is low compared to the national average and vi) Merger/acquisitions/revival and restructuring of PSUs.

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