Tata Steel hails new steel policy, says it will help cut cost

Tata Steel today welcomed the National Steel Policy, saying it will help focus on infrastructure-led growth and help the industry achieve world-class cost efficiencies.

"The steel industry is poised to grow from the current level of 60 kg per capita to 160 kg per capita consumption by 2030-31, as envisaged by the National Steel Policy 2017 cleared by the Cabinet last evening," Tata Steel managing director TV Narendran said in a statement.

The cabinet approved a new policy that envisages Rs 10 trillion investment to create more capacities. The priority will be given to domestic steelmakers in government tenders for infrastructure projects. The policy also aims at increasing supply of domestic coking coal to cut dependence on imports by half and a production capacity of 300 million tonne by 2030-31. Crude steel production in 2015-16 stood at 89.77 million tonne.

"We believe that the focus on infrastructure lead growth will not only support the demand growth but will also help us achieve world class cost efficiencies outside our factory gates," Narendran said.

The new policy would help in realigning the enablers in paving the way for the country to realise its potential by creating modern infrastructure and meeting the aspirations of its young population.

"We look forward to the implementation of the policy and the projected growth while we work with government to address supply side issues like raw material availability and debottlenecking logistics constraints in realising the goals of the policy," he said.

The steel ministry had earlier said the policy was a step towards steering the industry to achieve its future potential and strategy to deal with various impediments like high input cost, availability of raw materials, dependency on imports, financial stress etc, it added.