India has the potential to produce 300 million tonnes of steel by 2030, experts observed at a two-day conference on steel-making that began here on Friday.
Addressing the inaugural of ‘Vision 2030- Mission 300 MTPA’ on Friday, Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited CMD P. Raychaudhary said achieving the production target of 300 MTPA crude steel, though daunting, was not unattainable. “With several infrastructure projects spread all over the country, there would be a proportionate domestic demand,” he said.
The seventh ‘Iron and Steel-making Conference’ was organised by the Steel and Metallurgy magazine. Forecasting a moderate growth for the steel sector in the country, RINL former CMD Y. Siva Sagar Rao said the growing economy would sustain the demand.
Greenfield plants
Participating the programme, Durgapur Steel Plant CEO A.K Rath said in achieving capacity additions retrofitting the old steel plants should be taken seriously as it would be difficult to set up greenfield plants owing to a slew of problems, including land acquisition.
M.N. Dastur & Co. Limited Joint Managing Director Subrata Mitra said special steels, still being imported, would have to be produced in the country on a sufficient scale.
Economist A.S Phiroj estimated that 73 million tonnes would be available for export after the meeting the domestic demand of 227 million tonnes by 2030. Of the additional 145 million tonnes to be achieved, about 45 million tonnes would be through expanding the brownfield plants and the remaining through the greenfield ones.
Chief Technology Officer of Saarloha Advanced Materials Pvt. Ltd. M. Venkataraman said besides technology management, raw material challenges need to be addressed. “As the abundant iron ore available in the country is of low grade, coking coal imports continue,” he observed. ‘Steel and Metallurgy’ editor Nirmalya Mukherjee introduced the theme of the conference. JSW Steels Limited Senior Vice-president Sanjay Agarwal and CMI FPE Limited MD Raman Madhok and others also spoke.