Delay in allotment of coal and iron ore mines, increasing imports of iron ore by India and the failure of domestic steel makers to reach production targets so far this year were some of the issues that were discussed at an international conference on steel and iron ore here recently.
Affected by different regulatory issues, the domestic steel industry has missed the production target of 124 million tonnes for this fiscal by 40 per cent so far. Several global companies are re-thinking their Indian strategies, with plans of companies such as Posco having hit a roadblock for the last seven years.
With regard to iron ore, India, which had been exporting this raw material, had to import nine million tonnes so far this fiscal and could bring in 15 million tonnes for the full year, according to the Federation of Indian Mineral Industries. Against this background, industry leaders were unanimous that exploratory operations should be stepped up taking into account India’s steel demands by 2020.
N.K. Nanda, Director (Technical) of National Mineral Development Corporation, said India had 25 billion tonnes of iron ore reserves, but most of it was still untapped.
He said the company was willing to undertake exploratory works in different States free of cost, but most of the State Governments were yet to respond to the call and allot blocks. “Only Jharkhand has given us some blocks for exploration. None of the other States have come forward,” Nanda pointed out.
R.K. Goyal, Managing Director of Kalyani Steels, suggested that the government develop a model for allocation of resources and minerals for steel production, with priority to existing plants that do not have captive mines.
“Iron ore for steel production is not adequately available and whatever is there is sold at speculative prices due to the current issue of illegal mining,” he felt.
G.S. Mittal, Senior Vice-President of Jindal Steel and Power, said the company is expanding its steel making capacity to 20 million tonnes by 2020. For this, the firm requires nearly 34 million tonnes of iron ore, which it is trying to pool through overseas acquisitions and captive mining, he pointed out.