By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JAN 16, 2021: STEEL Minister Mr Dharmendra Pradhan on Friday exhorted Indian steel industry leaders to focus on becoming more competitive globally and focus on making the industry export-centric while developing newer products for use in industrial and construction sectors.

Speaking at a webinar on 'New opportunities for steel in construction and infrastructure,' organised by the Indian Steel Association (ISA), Mr Pradhan that 'Aatmanirbhar Bharat' and being 'Vocal for Local' meant creating a robust domestic market and going beyond fulfilling domestic requirement to reach the global markets.

"Our steel sector is perfectly poised to become more vibrant, globally competitive and export-centric," he added.

Speaking about infrastructure creation, the Steel Minister noted that infrastructure development will be key to achieve Prime Minister Mr Narendra Modi's target of becoming a USD 5 trillion economy.

"Our Government is focusing on creating a modern infrastructure for the 21st century. Whether it is roads, railways, housing or oil and gas, every sector is seeing infrastructure creation at unprecedented pace," he elaborated.

"The Rs 20 lakh crore Aatmanirbhar package gives special stress on infrastructure sector. All these augurs well for the steel sector."

He recommended that domestic steel manufacturers should focus on attracting the government's attention by increasing revenue in the sector.

"When we hope for a tax restructuring from someone, we must increase production, become more competitive, increase exports and minimise import. The Finance Department gets some [more] amount as revenue.

"We need to increase our consumption. When volume increases, we [industry] will be able to contribute more to the country. Then the Finance Department will take interest in the reforms we are expecting," the minister explained.

Minister of State for Steel Mr Faggan Singh Kulaste said that steel usage per capita in the country is 74 kg, which is about one-third of the global average.

He emphasized that there is an urgent need to bridge this gap and asked the ISA to draw a roadmap to drive steel usage in urban and rural areas.

"Our government has sanctioned Rs. 6,322 crore for Production-Linked Incentive scheme (PLI) for specialty steel. I hope that the ISA will work on greater value addition and focus on specialty steel to bring in greater self- reliance in steel sector," he said.

Senior officers from the Ministry of Steel, subject experts, industry leaders, academicians, researchers, large users and regulators also participated in the webinar.