The Centre has exhorted Indian steelmakers to acquire coking coal and iron ore assets abroad to ensure raw material security for the country.
“We are encouraging our companies to acquire assets abroad, right from iron ore to coking coal to even limestone and dolomite,” steel secretary Sandeep Poundrik said in Mumbai on Saturday, observing that raw material securitisation is the most important aspect of steelmaking.
India is the second-largest, albeit distant, producer of steel in the world, with 200
million tonne capacity and targeted to reach 300 mt by 2030 to support growth in infrastructure and demand for automobile and consumer durables.
While it is self-sufficient in iron ore production, India imports 85 per cent of coking coal — a key raw material for blast furnace-based steelmakers. To support this expansion, coking coal imports may rise to 160 mt by 2030 from around 58 mt now, with Australia supplying more than half of it.
Indian companies, both in the public and private sector, had been scouting for raw material assets abroad, in countries like Australia, Mozambique, Canada, Chile among others. However, the results have been mixed. For instance, Tata Steel’s ventures in Mozambique for coking coal or iron ore in Ivory Coast did not play out well, as did JSW Steel’s iron ore overtures in Chile.
ICVL, a consortium of public sector companies, however, managed to acquire
and operate a coal mine in Mozambique.
While Poundrik encouraged steel companies to go abroad, Union minister of coal and mines, G. Kishan Reddy, stressed the need to ramp up domestic production. To reduce import dependency, India is planning 140mt of domestic production, and increasing blending of domestic coal from 10 per cent to 30 per cent in steelmaking by 2030.