Question : increase in Steel Plants

(a) whether the Government is considering to establish more steel plants in the country as the demand for steel is increasing day by day and if so, the details thereof;
(b) whether import dependency on steel has adversely affected the Indian domestic market leading to high price of steel;
(c) if so, the details thereof and the steps taken by the Government to reduce the import dependency on steel during the current year;
(d) whether the Government is aware that a large chunk of iron ore is still unexplored in different parts of the country and if so, the details thereof, State-wise;
(e) the steps taken by the Government to explore iron ore with the help of State Governments; and
(f) whether the Government proposes to set up more iron based industries in the country to increase the production of iron ore in the country and if so, the details thereof, State-wise?

THE MINISTER OF STEEL (SHRI RAM CHANDRA PRASAD SINGH)

(a) Steel is a de-regulated sector and the government acts only as a facilitator. The decisions related to establishment of steel plants are taken by individual PSU’s based on techno-commercial considerations.

(b)&(c): India is second largest producer of steel and is net exporter. The import of steel constitutes a small portion of the domestic consumption of steel. Steel being a de-regulated sector, the prices are influenced by various factors like global market conditions, trends in price of raw materials, logistics cost, power and fuel cost etc. The data on production, consumption, import and export of finished steel during last 3 years is given below:-

Financial Year Production Consumption Import Export
2018-19 101.29 98.71 7.84 6.36
2019-20 102.62 100.17 6.77 8.36
2020-21 96.20 94.89 4.75 10.78

Contd……...2/-

-: 2 :-



The steps taken by the Government to further reduce imports of steel include:-

(i) Steel Import Monitoring System (SIMS) for advanced registration of steel imports with an aim to provide granular details of intended imports to the Government as well as domestic steel industry, and
(ii) Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Specialty Steel with an outlay of ? 6,322 Crores to facilitate setting up of manufacturing of ''Specialty Steel'' within the country.

(d) Geological Survey of India (GSI) carries out geological mapping and exploration activities across the country with an aim to discover/find out potential mineralized locales. Government of India has been carrying out iron ore exploration in the country and the state-wise details of iron ore exploration carried out by GSI in last 3 years and current FY 2021-22 is given in Annexure-I.

(e)&(f): Government has taken various steps to exploration and production of iron ore which include the following:-

• GSI is generating baseline geo-science data through geological/ geophysical/ geochemical mapping pan India which are of paramount importance for planning mineral exploration activities.

• GSI carries out ‘reconnaissance survey’ [G4], ‘preliminary exploration’ [G3] and ‘general exploration’ [G2] following the MEMC Amendment Rules, 2021 with an aim to augment resource for various mineral commodities including iron ore. In practice, the resource bearing G2/G3 reports are handed over to the concerned State Governments for auctioning of mineral concession.

To boost the mining sector, since amendment of Mines and Mineral (Development and Regulation) (MMDR) Act, 2015, 25 numbers of iron ore resource bearing G2/G3 reports of GSI have been handed over to the concerned State Governments for consideration in the auctioning process. Recently, following the Minerals (Evidence of Mineral Contents) Second Amendment (MEMC) Rule 2021 (Amended MMDR Act 2021) GSI has handed over 17 Geological Memorandums on iron ore to the concerned state governments for auctioning as composite license.

• Since Amendment of MMDR Act 2015, GSI has augmented 1470.20 million tonnes of iron ore resources in the country.

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