By IANS,
New Delhi : India’s annual steel production will touch 124 million tonnes by 2012 with a planned investment of Rs.2.76 trillion ($64.46 billion), up from 109.17 million tonnes in 2007-08, Minister of Steel Ram Vilas Paswan said here Friday.
Paswan released his ministry’s four-year report card “Forging New Frontiers”, detailing headway made by the steel industry in the four years of the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) rule.
Paswan said the country’s crude steel production was growing over 10 percent annually from 34.71 million tonnes in 2002-03 to 53.90 million tonnes in 2007-08.
“The production of finished steel went up to 55.27 million tonnes in 2007-08 against 40.71 million tonnes in 2003-04,” he said, adding that the total investment in steel sector would go up to Rs.8.70 trillion ($203 billion) in 2020.
The state-owned Steel Authority of India Limited’s (SAIL) proposed Rs.540 billion expansion plan is expected to boost its production capacity to 26.2 million tonnes by 2010 and 60 million tonnes in 2019-20.
“The ministry is committed to make SAIL a global player in all respects,” said Paswan.
Paswan said the consolidated profit before tax (PBT) of all public sector steel undertakings had increased to Rs.206.24 billion in 2007-08 from Rs.52.98 billion in 2003-04.
Regarding expansion and investment in steel industry, Paswan said 193 memorandum of understandings (MoUs) have been signed by various states, including Orissa, Jharkhand, Karnataka, and Chhattisgarh, with total planned capacity of around 243 million tonnes and a proposed investment of over Rs.5.14 trillion ($120 billion).
“Many private want to set up steel plants in Orissa, Jharkhand and other states, but they did not get adequate co-operation from them (state governments) in terms of land acquisition and other facilities. It is an issue the senior executives of private sector firms do raise when they meet me,” he said.
Minister said there would be no scarcity of steel products in the country and the inter-ministerial group, constituted in July 2007, was coordinating and facilitating speedy implementation of major steel investments.