Govt pushes $15-bn in the country's steel sector

To cater to increasing requirement of steel, especially in the infrastructure sector, the Union government has decided to invest $15 billion for increasing steel production in the country, CMD of NMDC, N Baijendra Kumar informed that the country's steel production and demand are likely to grow at a healthy rate of 6-7% in the near future. While the production and consumption in major countries such as China, Japan and the European Union is likely to stagnate in the near future, the Government push on infrastructure would ensure that the targets of Steel Policy 2017 would be achieved. In view of this, steel production capacity is set to meet the National Steel Policy targets of 300 million tons by FY31. The NMDC is fully geared to meet the increased iron ore demand and is investing in mines and evacuation for augmenting capacity to almost double in the next 3-4 years. Being the country's largest producer of iron ore, NMDC has the best quality of ore with the highest Fe content and has adequate reserves. Its operations are comparable with global majors like Vale, Rio Tinto, and FMG on indices like production cost, employee cost and performance, said Kumar.