The Hindu : Business : Steel capacity aimed at 100 mt

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 04, 2005

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Business

Steel capacity aimed at 100 mt

Special Correspondent

Making domestic industry globally competitive is the objective of policy

NEW DELHI: The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Thursday approved the National Steel Policy (NSP), which envisages an increase in production to over 100 million tonnes and aims at making the domestic steel industry "globally competitive in terms of cost, quality and product mix.''

Briefing newspersons here after the CCEA meeting, Minister for Information and Broadcasting S. Jaipal Reddy said that it was imperative to increase the domestic production of steel to more than 100 million tonnes annually by 2019-20 from the 2004-05 level of 38 million tonnes annually. This, he said, implied a compounded annual growth rate of 7.3 per cent till 2019-20.

"The NSP seeks to adopt a multi-pronged strategy to move towards the long-term goal.

On the demand side, the strategy would be to create an incremental demand through promotional efforts, creation of awareness and strengthening the delivery chain, particularly in the rural areas,'' Mr Reddy said.

On the supply side, the strategy would be to facilitate creation of additional capacity, remove procedural and policy bottlenecks in the availability of inputs such as iron ore and coal, make higher investments in research and development (R&D) and human resource development and encourage the creation of infrastructure such as roads, railways and ports, he said.

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