'Alloy policy' to be implemented: Steel Secretary

The Centre is planning to come out with an alloy policy in a bid to augment the output of special steel in the country. Last year, Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh had expressed unhappiness over steel PSUs performance and asked the companies pay attention towards value addition as well as production of special steel that has multiple uses including in the automobile sector, defence, shipping among other areas. "We are coming up with an alloy policy," Steel Secretary Aruna Sharma said stressing that the need for such a policy was felt in the wake of increased demand of special steel from various sectors. The alloy policy not only aims at increasing the output of special steel but also at producing more grades of special steel in the country, the steel secretary said. She did not elaborate on the time-frame as to when the policy will roll out. Last year, the government had approved National Steel Policy with an aim to raise domestic crude steel capacity to 300 million tonnes by 2030-31.