Meanwhile, the country’s crude steel production has grown at more than 10% annually from 34.71 MT in 2002-03 to 53.90 MT in the last fiscal while the production of finished steel stood at 55.27 MT during 2007-08 as against 40.71 MT in 2003-04. Sponge iron grew at a CAGR of 22% to reach a level of 18.35 MT in 2006-07 compared to 7.68 MT in 2002-03.

In tune with the NSP, state-run steel giants SAIL and RINL are in the midst of ambitious expansions to adopt the best technology and double their production capacities. SAIL’s Rs 54,000-crore expansion plan is expected to raise its capacity to 26.2 million tonnes per annum of crude steel production by 2010 while RINL’s expansion plan is expected to take its capacity to 6.3 million tonnes and is expected to be completed by February 2010 at an estimated cost of around Rs 9,000 crore.

However, the Committee expressed concern over SAIL’s lower blast furnace productivity as compared to Tata Steel and RINL, ostensibly due to inferior iron ore content and higher impurities, and asked the PSU to bring it on a par with the others.

•India expected to become 2nd world’s largest steel-making nation by the year 2015

•The country’s crude steel production has grown at more than 10% annually from the 2002-03 figure of 34.71 MT to the last fiscal’s figure of 59.30 MT