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Updated December 2nd, 2019 at 22:17 IST

Steel sector: Dharmendra Pradhan asserts that India has become a net exporter of steel

Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, during the winter session of Parliament, said the steel sector has been witnessing growth in the recent past after slowdown.

Reported by: Rishabh Mishra
Steel sector
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The Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas and Minister of Steel, Dharmendra Pradhan, during the winter session of Parliament, said, the steel sector is witnessing growth in the recent past after a slowdown. This comes a few days after the GDP figures for the second quarter of FY 2019-20 was released. The GDP numbers hit a new low showing only 4.5% of growth. The Union Minister, during the question hour in Rajya Sabha also informed the house that India becoming a net exporter of steel in the current financial year. 

India – Net exporter of steel 

Responding to a question in the parliament about the government's plan to set up new steel plants in Haryana, Dharmendra Pradhan said, steel is a deregulated sector where market forces and commercial considerations decide construction and location of new steel plants. “The import of steel has increased marginally in the last three years from 7.23 million tonnes in 2016-17 to 7.83 million tonnes in 2018-19,” he added further. Apart from this, he also said that domestic production has consistently increased in the country regardless of imports.  

Read: Dharmendra Pradhan urges the steel industry to become environment-friendly & boost production

According to him, India has become a net exporter of steel in the current year. He said, "To counter import of cheap steel, anti-dumping duties have been imposed on various grades of steel which were dumped into the country. Import of steel grades which are not manufactured in adequate quantity in the country is essential for supporting the manufacturing sector”.  

Read: Economic slowdown in the country is temporary: Union Minister

Dharmendra Pradhan on Iron Ore 

Talking about the iron ore sector, the Union Minister added that the production of iron ore in the country is enough to meet the current demand and consumption by the domestic industry. He said: 

"The supply of iron ore during last year i.e. 2018-19 was 207.7 MT against its demand of 189 MT”. Hailing the steel sector, he also added that "witnessing improvement in recent past after a slow down. Demands for steel products have been increasing". 

Read: India has to be self-sufficient in high-grade steel: Dharmendra Pradhan to industry

Pradhan on Coking coal 

The cabinet minister informed the house that the demand for coking coal has not been met entirely in domestic production. He thus said that there was no option left but to import it. Putting forth the important statistics before the house, the union minister also said that during 2018-19, the total demand for coking coal for the steel industry was 58.37 MT and out of this, 54.80 MT were through imports. 

The remaining amount of 1.6 MT and 1.97MT was provided by the Bharat Coking Coal Limited, the SAIL, and Tata Steel. The minister said the number of steel industries in the country in 2018-19 stood at 1,217. Revealing the future plans of the steel sector, he also said that there is a plan to set up a greenfield steel plant by RINL in Visakhapatnam with an international player.  

(With PTI Inputs)

Read: 'Govt has no business to be in business': Pradhan before BPCL decision

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Published December 2nd, 2019 at 16:06 IST

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