Question : Price of Steel

(a) whether the price of steel has increased about 250% in the last five years which has drastically affected our infrastructure development and if so, the details thereof and the action taken by the Government in this regard;

(b) whether there is any issue in the supply of iron ore or raw material for steel plants in India and if so, the details thereof and the steps taken by the Government to make steel industry more efficient and be available at cheap rate; and

(c) the details of effective steps taken by the Government to develop the integrated Steel plant at Salem, Tamil Nadu?

THE MINISTER OF STEEL (SHRI RAM CHANDRA PRASAD SINGH)

(a) Details of average market price (retail) of key products of iron and steel used in infrastructure sector in last five years (avg. in November month) are as follows:-

JPC AVERAGE MARKET PRICE (RETAIL) (excluding GST) (Rs/t)
Item Nov-16 Nov-17 Nov-18 Nov-19 Nov-20 Nov-21 %change
(Nov''21 w.r.t Nov''16)
WIRE RODS 8 MM 30808 35379 43903 35324 40909 55388 80
TMT 10 MM 28438 33000 42778 35464 39398 57314 102
PLATES 10 MM 32244 38325 46817 35460 42875 69852 117
G. P. SHEETS 0.63 MM 44027 49454 57596 48360 55771 85237 94
Source : Joint Plant Committee (JPC)

The details of consumption of finished steel including that in Infrastructure sector in the last five years is given as follows:
(in million tonnes)
Financial Year FY 17 FY 18 FY 19 FY20 FY 21
Consumption of Finished steel 84.04 90.71 98.71 100.17 94.89
Source: Joint Plant Committee (JPC)

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(b) Government has taken various steps to increase availability of iron ore and steel and make them available at reasonable price, which, inter-alia, including Mining and Mineral Policy reforms to enhance production/availability of iron ore, early operationalization of forfeited working mines of Odisha by the Steel and Central PSUs etc., and ramping up production and capacity utilization by steel producers. In Union Budget 2021-22, Customs Duty has been reduced uniformly to 7.5% on Semis, Flat and Long products of non-alloy, alloy and stainless steels. Further, to provide relief to metal re-cyclers, mostly MSMEs, BCD on steel scrap has been exempted for a period up to 31st March, 2022. In addition, ADD and CVD on certain steel products have also been revoked/temporarily revoked.

(c) Steel is a deregulated sector and the role of the Government is that of a facilitator. Decision regarding development of steel plants are taken by individual companies based on techno-commercial consideration.

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