March 14, 2002
‘18’
/LOK SABHA/
DOMESTIC CONSUMPTION OF STEEL
Per capita consumption of steel in India is very low i.e. 27 kg against a world average of 116 kg. The Government has taken a number of steps to raise consumption level of steel in the country. Those include (i) constitution of a National Campaign Committee to promote steel consumption through development of markets especially in the rural areas, (ii) encouraging usage of steel in new application areas such as grain storage systems, crash barriers in highways and expressways, (iii) providing financial support to R&D ventures in iron and steel sector to reduce production cost, (iv) constitution of a committee to augment use of domestic steel in the automobile sector, (v) organising seminars for dissemination of knowledge on the use of steel and (vi) setting up of service centers to supply steel products as per the specific needs of the consumers.
This was informed by the Minister for Steel Shri B.K.Tripathy in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today. Regarding productivity the Minister stated that productivity in certain segments of production facilites, like blast furnaces, labour etc. of some of the integrated steel plants is of a level comparable to the best in the world. However, there is a scope for improvement in productivity in many techno-economic parameters of different plants.
The Minister further said that most of the older steel plants have modernised their production facilities and adopted the latest state-of-the-art technologies. Steel plants set up in the latter part of the nineties have adopted advanced technologies on their own. The Government has also been encouraging research and development activities with financial assistance from the Steel Development Fund (SDF).