India has to be self-sufficient in high grade steel: Pradhan to industry

New Delhi, Nov 14 () Union Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan stressed on the need to make India self-sufficient in high grade steel and sought collective efforts of the industry to make the sector future-ready.

Metals, including steel, continue to play a vital role in building India a modern economy, the minister said, adding that there is a strong positive correlation between steel usage and a nation's economic growth.

"He has appealed to the delegates to embrace challenge of producing high grade steel for greater self-sufficiency. Steel sector must be future-ready to embrace the change and leverage innovation. Professionals from the metallurgical fraternity will have an important role to play in achieving this quantum leap and creating green pathways to make the Indian steel sector future-ready," a statement quoted Pradhan as saying.

The National Steel Policy 2017 was formulated to create a more self-sufficient and globally competitive steel industry with a crude steel capacity of 300 million tonnes by 2030, he said.

The steel sector will have a key role to play in the making of a New India envisioned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the minister said.

"The next trajectory of growth, fuelled by government's key focus on building infrastructure for future, creating smart cities, industrial corridors and so forth will further boost steel consumption."

Import of high-grade steel was one of the issues the industry faced in 2018-19.

High grade and value-added steel are used in power, defence and automobile which is currently imported. ABI MKJ