Kolkata: India's steel sector, which is passing through a global oversupply crisis, may take another 18-24 months for revival, a Steel Ministry official has said.
"We have assessed the steel situation within the ministry and according to that assessment the industry is expected to remain under stress for the next 18 to 24 months," Ministry of Steel Joint Secretary Syedain Abbasi said.
"Government is there to help out the industry in these difficult times. We have imposed safeguard import duty on steel and have taken up the issue of easing the external commercial booking norms for the steel industry with the Finance Ministry," he said.
Indian steel demand is expected to remain robust in the current financial year (2015-16) with the consumption expected to rise 5-6 per cent a year, he said.
"I can understand the industry is facing unfair competition from the Chinese producers. But 5-7 per cent steel import is healthy domestic industry. Import is necessary for fair pricing of steel in the country," he said.
Despite of the stress in the sector, India's total steel production is seen rising to 300 million tonnes by the year 2025, Mr Abbasi added.
Meanwhile, steel companies were optimistic about long term and adding capacity.
JSW Steel on Thursday said its steel capacity will increase to 18 million tonnes by December 2015 and 30 million tonnes by 2020.
Speaking about the Salboni steel project, JSW group chairman Sajjan Jindal said that the project will depend on iron ore availability.
"We will bid for iron ore mines in Odisha and Jharkhand and if we win and states allow to ship it out of the state, then it will help Salboni project," Mr Jindal said.
Currently, the 10 million tonnes steel plant in Bengal is in hold for lack of iron ore linkage.
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