The government’s Production Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme for speciality steel has received a total of 27 registrations and three applications ahead of the April 30 deadline, a senior official said.
“We are getting a good response and all of them are secondary players,” additional steel secretary Rasika Chaube said, but did not provide the names of the companies that evinced interest in the scheme. Chaube was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the three-day Global Stainless Steel Expo (GSSE) 2022.
On July 22 last year, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had approved the Rs 6,322-crore PLI scheme to boost the production of speciality steel in India. The government had also extended the deadline to submit the applications by a month to April 30 from the earlier March 29. The scheme is expected to attract an additional investment of about Rs 40,000 crore and generate 5.25-lakh jobs.
In its efforts to help the industry, the Ministry of Steel has also asked the Finance Ministry to remove the basic customs duty on ferronickel, a raw material. This would help stainless steelmakers, who were impacted by a rising price of the material due to a shortage following the Russia-Ukraine crisis, reduce their input costs, Chaube said.
At present, a 2.5% duty is imposed on the imports of ferronickel. “We took up the matter as it is an important raw material for the stainless steel sector. Chromium, another raw material, is in good supply,” she added. In her keynote address at the GSSE, the official urged industry to make India a net exporter of stainless steel and added that the ministry is taking several initiatives to promote its usage. This included promotion of capacity additions and improving consumption of steel in the country.
The demand for stainless steel is expected to witness a volume growth of 19.5-21% and 3.7-3.9 MT by 2047, according to a vision document unveiled at the expo. The growth would be supported by the low base of fiscal 2022, a stable macro-economic environment and normalised government spending, it said. According to Jindal Stainless Managing Director Abhyuday Jindal, the Indian government had taken various steps to promote increased adoption of stainless steel and the industry was looking at continued support.
