Petroleum and Natural Gas & Steel minister, Dharmendra Pradhan held a meeting with CEOs of steel industry in New Delhi on September 13. The issues and bottlenecks concerning the industry and the possible solutions for them were discussed during the interaction.
The CEOs belonging to India’s leading steelmakers raised several issues, including financing, easy availability of raw materials, free trade agreements, taxation and mining contracts.
Pradhan assured the industry of full support from the government. He said that the steel industry had matured over the years to evolve in terms of capacity building, quality assurance and manufacturing technology. He emphasised that the industry had to mark its place in the world, by being more competitive, improving on quality and increasing exports. He called upon the industry to do more value-addition and fulfill the requirements of the niche sector.
He also urged the industry to diversify their sources of raw material procurement, so as to bring down the costs and reduce dependence on limted channels. The minister said there is a large scope and demand for Indian products in the international markets. He assured them that the just and reasonable demands of the industry would be favourably considered and their timely resolution explored.