Steel production to be doubled to 300 MT per annum by 2030: Scindia

New Delhi, Feb 16 (IANS) Steel Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Thursday said that large scale augmentation would be done to double steel production from the existing 150 million tonnes to 300 million tonnes per annum by 2030.

Addressing the Global Zinc Summit, he said that the Indian Railways and Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) are working together to produce corrosion free steel. "With anti-corrosion features and quality to prevent oxidation in steel products, zinc has tremendous marketing potential for sectors like renewable energy and rural electrification. Galvanised steel will give a long life to infrastructure present alongside our long coastline," he added.

India currently is the fourth largest producer of zinc in the world and 80 per cent of zinc produced in India is consumed domestically, the minister said.

India has already emerged as the second-largest steel producer in the world and its per capita steel consumption has gone up from 57 kg to 78 kg during the last nine years, Scindia said.

The government, he told the gathering, has awarded 54 applications submitted by 26 companies under the production linked incentive (PLI) scheme for specialty steel.

The union cabinet in July 2021 had approved a Rs 6,322-crore PLI scheme to boost the production of speciality steel in India. It will help augment production capacity of 26 million tonnes per annum and investment of Rs 30,000 crore with the employment generation for 55,000 people.

The minister added that the government has announced a huge capex of Rs 10 lakh crore for infrastructure development, which has opened tremendous investment opportunities across the sectors.