India signs $5 bn-worth of pacts to give impetus to iron and steel industry

Thirty-eight pacts worth $5 billion were signed among 20 technology providers, capital goods manufacturers and steel producers, which will give impetus to the manufacturing of capital goods for iron and steel industry. Of the 20 companies who exchanged the MoUs on Tuesday, about 12 are foreign players. The MoUs were signed at a conclave on Capital Goods for Steel Sector: Manufacture in India, organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) jointly with Mecon and Steel Ministry. Some of the companies that signed the pacts were China-based ACRE, Italy-based CSM, Luxemburg headquartered Paul Wurth, Danieli Corus — supplier of tailor-made solutions for the primary metals industry — and domestic steel makers and heavy equipment manufacturers, including SAIL, JSW, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, MECON Limited, Heavy Engineering Corporation Limited. The pacts were signed for coke oven, agglomeration, blast furnaces, steel making, rolling mills, waste to energy and iron ore crusher and beneficiation. India has set a target to increase its crude steel capacity to 300 million tonnes by 2030-31 from about 134 million tonnes at present. For adding the new capacity, the Indian steel industry is expected to invest $128 billion in next 10-12 years. For this, India will have to import a large number of critical plants and equipment worth almost $25 billion to meet the needs of domestic steel industry by 2031. Besides, spares worth over $500 million will have to be imported to meet the needs of the steel industry by 2030-31. “To ensure that MoUs signed today (Tuesday) culminate into manufacturing of capital goods, a purchase preference policy to cover all purchase of steel products is being worked upon by the ministry. It will ensure that products and product categories that are not covered by the DMI&SP (Domestically Manufactured Iron & Steel Products) policy will get covered by the proposed policy on the line of which has been prescribed by the DIPP,” Union steel minister Chaudhary Birender Singh said at the conclave.