March 14, 2002

    The liberalisation has substantially enhanced international competitiveness of Indian steel in the global export markets and exports from India have increased from 0.310 million tonnes to 3 million tonnes between 1992 and 2001. Further the composition of the export basket has also undergone a change with the emphasis shifting to more value added products. Imports have remained more or less in the vicinity of the pre-reforms level ranging between 1 to 2 million tonnes per annum.

    The change in policy has had an overall positive impact on the economy. Large scale fresh investments in the private sector have resulted in creation of capacities based on state of the art technologies. Liberalisation-induced competitiveness in the sector has also led to investments for modernisation and capacity additions in the existing steel plants.

    This information was given by the Minister for Steel Shri B.K.Tripathy in a written reply in the Lok Sabha today.