India and Luxembourg
have shown interest to expand mutual business cooperation in
the steel sector and strengthen their long standing friendly
ties. Mr. Henri Grethen, Minister of Economic Affairs of Luxembourg,
met the Union Minister of Steel, Shri Braja Kishore Tripathy,
here today and reiterated Luxembourg’s desire to widen business
relations with India. Shri Tripathy said that cooperation between
Indian steel industry and Paul Wurth, leading steel player in
Luxembourg stretches back to more than a decade. The Steel Authority
of India Limited (SAIL), a public sector steel company, entered
into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in 1987 for design,
engineering and supplies for installation of Bell Less Top (BLT)
Charging System.
Both the countries
today exchanged Letters of mutual cooperation. Mr. Grethen said
that the Government of Grand Duchy of Luxembourg is keen to
promote transfer of technology and exchange technical expertise
along with funding arrangement with Indian steel companies.
Shri Tripathy said that the Government of India will extend
all necessary help and cooperation to make the mutual business
relations a success.
The Minister said
that following liberalisation of our industrial policy, the
participation and growth of private enterprise in the Indian
steel sector has grown substantially. While existing units are
being modernised and expanded, a large number of greenfield
steel plants have also come up based on state-of-the-art technologies.
He said that the total crude steel making capacity, at present,
in the country is over 34 million tonnes. India has, to its
credit, the capability to produce a variety of grades of steel
of international standards. With the present low per capita
consumption of steel in India, there is considerable scope for
growth in this sector. Shri J.S. Gill, Secretary, Steel, Shri
D.V. Singh, Joint Secretary, Steel and Shri V.S. Jain, Chairman,
SAIL also participated in the discussion.
