The steel ministry has invited request for proposal (RFP) from consulting firms for developing an action plan to mitigate the impact of slowdown induced by the Covid-19 pandemic. “The management consultant will be responsible for development and implementation of an action plan with defined milestones, within a period of one year from the date of signing the contract,” Joint Plant Committee (JPC), a wing under the ministry of steel, said in the RFP inviting interested parties.

Apart from identifying the current challenges of both the integrated and secondary steel producers, the preferred consultancy firm will have to assess their impact on the steel sector as a whole including their bearings on the supply-chain, logistics, cost of raw materials and pricing of products, availability and cost of labour, international trade-related issues, demand in both domestic and international markets, external and internal threat analysis and cost and availability of finance.

The exercise should not only involve stakeholder discussion but also extensive site visits, wherever required, in order to get first hand impression about the state of affairs. The consultancy firm will also have to “identify low hanging fruits in terms of policy initiatives which would lead to immediate easing out of pressure on the steel sector — both upstream and downstream,” the RFP said.

The agency will also have to provide key inputs for the preparation of policy papers in the form of Group of Ministers (GoMs) notes, cabinet notes, Committee of Secretaries (CoSs) notes and policy documents, etc. in order to achieve the targets as mentioned in the action plan.

The consultant shall also be expected to organise regular stakeholder contacts in order to develop, fine-tune and recalibrate the action plan. It also has to review domestically manufactured iron and steel policy (DMI&SP) in the light of insights available through Steel Import Monitoring System (SIMS) analytics, deliberations of grievance committee and suggest ways to enforce this policy in all central and state government agencies.

Tariff and non-tariff measures required to afford protection to the domestic steel industry from any injury on account of dumping is also to be suggested along with policy interventions required to boost steel export. The consultant will also suggest investment policy and trade measures needed to make it attractive for Indian and foreign companies to set up end-to-end manufacturing of value-added steel in India, it said.
The last date for submission of RFP has been extended to June 26 from June 9 earlier.