Brand India label to adorn domestic steel products soon
3 min read . Updated: 11 Apr 2023, 05:09 PM IST
Premium- Brand India steel products will set new benchmarks for credibility and quality and strengthen country’s domestic manufacturing
To build credibility around made in India products, the government has proposed to introduce new Brand India labelling norms for certain steel products manufactured under identified quality control metrics.
Steel and civil aviation minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said Brand India steel products will set new benchmarks for credibility and quality and strengthen country’s domestic manufacturing in line with the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative.
As part of the new branding plan for the steel sector, the label would be given to products manufactured following 13 sector specific metrics formulated by the steel ministry in consultation with the industry.
These metrics define the production process, location, product design and quality standards for steel products and only products manufactured complying with the identifying metrics would carry Brand India logo.
“Since August 2022, the Ministry of Steel, in collaboration with DPIIT and QCI (Quality Council of India) has been working on a framework to showcase the strength of the Indian steel industry by leveraging the ‘Made in India’ label on steel products in both domestic and export markets. As part of this effort, stakeholder consultations were conducted with leading Indian steel plants to draw a consensus on the scheme criteria and QR code components for steel manufacturers," Scindia informed a group of journalists.
He said that state-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) and private sector steel producer Jindal Stainless will soon initiate a pilot to manufacture these world-class steel products that would carry the brand India label.
Once the pilot is over, the government proposes to rope in all local steel manufacturers to join the initiative and start promoting Brand India steel both in domestic and global markets.
“The Ministry of Steel has invited other Indian Steel Plants to participate in branding their steel products under the ‘Made in India’ label scheme. QCI is facilitating the smooth onboarding of these steel plants," the steel minister said.
In order to integrate the technology platforms of Sail and JSL with the platform for the ‘Made in India’ label, the QCI team made visits to the JSL Hisar plant and the Bokaro Steel Plant (SAIL).
Both SAIL and JSL have now been successfully integrated with the Made in India platform. Apart from the branding Indian steel industry, ministry of steel is also engaging with the stakeholders from the steel industry and the government departments and ministries such as Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MOEFCC), Ministry of Power, Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), NITI Aayog etc. to work out a strategy to decarbonise Indian steel sector.
In line with India’s commitment towards climate change adaptation and mitigation, Scindia said that 13 key components have been identified as key levers for the low carbon transition of the steel sector. Moreover, a Task Force has been constituted with the involvement of experts and industry stakeholders to discuss, deliberate and brainstorm over each of the 13 components and to come up with possible actionable points.
The steel minister said that after the success of PLI scheme for specialised steel where MoU with respect of 57 applications from 27 companies were signed on 17 March, 2023, a new PLI 2.0 is being looked by the steel ministry and the same may be launched after consultation with stakeholders to finalise steel products and categories to be covered under the scheme.
Government is looking to strengthen the domestic steel sector with aim of enhancing production that will be required to meet the rapidly growing domestic demand and facilitate infrastructure development that is being undertaken at accelerated pace in the country.
As per steel ministry’s estimates, by 2030-31, operational capacity of crude steel production of SAIL will rise from existing 19.51 MTPA to around 35.65 MTPA. SAIL has already achieved all-time best annual production in FY2022-23.
The company recorded 19.4 million tonnes (MT) of hot metal and 18.2 MT crude steel production with a growth of 3.6% and 5.3% respectively. Also, NMDC recorded best-ever Q4 and March month production of iron ore and crossed 41 million tonne production in the fiscal.