(a) whether any decline has been registered in dependence on the import of special grade steel in the country;
(b) if so, the various efforts initiated to start manufacturing of special grade steel in the country; and
(c) the details of import compared to the domestic demand of special grade steel during the last three years?
THE MINISTER OF STEEL (SHRI DHARMENDRA PRADHAN)
(a)to(c): The details of import of all grades of finished steel, including special grade steel, in the last 3 years are given below:-
Year Import of finished steel Demand of finished steel
2018-19 7.84 MT 98.71 MT
2019-20 6.77 MT 100.17 MT
2020-21(till Jan., 21*) 3.79 MT 74.94 MT
(Source: JPC; *Provisional)
Steel industry is a deregulated sector and the decisions regarding setting up production capacity of any steel grades are taken by individual company, based on techno-economic considerations. The steps taken by the Government inter-alia include the following:-
(i) National Steel Policy, 2017 notified on 08th May, 2017 envisages domestically meeting the entire demand of steel and high-grade automotive steel, electrical steel, special steel and alloys for strategic applications.
(ii) ‘Domestically Manufactured Iron & Steel Products Policy (DMI&SP) has been notified with an objective to encourage production and consumption of domestically produced steel.
(iii) Government has issued the Steel and Steel Products Quality Control Orders through which it has directed compulsory BIS certification for 145 Iron and Steel Products.
(iv) Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme recently announced by the Government includes ‘Specialty Steel’.
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