Industry body ASSOCHAM said that steel consumption in India is likely to reach around 122 million tonnes by 2015 from the current annual base of about 70 million tones.

ASSOCHAM secretary general Mr DS Rawat while releasing the chamber's study on Indian Steel Sector said that rising demand from sectors like agriculture, consumer durables, capital goods, oil and gas and water is the key growth driver behind this upward spiraling demand of steel.

He said that "Given the growth prospects for the economy, steel production in India is likely to double from the existing level in the years to come.”

He added that it requires a vision encompassing availability of key raw material, infrastructure, research, development, rehabilitation and human resource development.

Mr Rawat said that "Domestic steel companies must target countries like Australia and Mozambique to make up for the low reserves of coking coal.”

He said that "Considering that India is self reliant in iron ore production, the steel companies must intensify efforts to develop technologies to make use of iron ore fines and thermal coal for steel production.”

ASSOCHAM has suggested the ministry of steel to form a core group in this regard consisting of representatives from academics, industry and equipment designer capable of using locally available raw material.

Mr Rawat said that "Since, profitability of our steel industry is based on price of coking coal in the international market, thus efforts should be made to intensify use of technologies that can utilize high ash coke and iron ore fines available locally.”

There is a huge potential for consumption of steel in the rural sector where steel and energy consumption is abysmally low and must be augmented for socio economic development and achieve the desired goal of inclusive growth.

Besides demand for steel in traditional sectors and high-tech engineering industries like construction, fertilizers, petrochemicals and power generation is likely to swell further.

Mr Rawat further said that demand for cold rolled grain oriented and cold rolled non oriented steel are bound to rise on the back of large scale capacity expansion in power sector and associated infrastructures.

(Sourced from ET)