Steel Minister to Inaugurate ‘Make in Steel’ Conference on Friday

NEW DELHI:
Steel Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh will inaugurate a high-profile conference here on Friday to deliberate on a roadmap for the resurgence of India’s steel industry and address its concerns, especially low domestic consumption of steel, volatility in prices, global overstocks and import of cheap products from steel-surplus countries like China and Japan.
Steel Secretary Dr Aruna Sharma and a clutch of industry stalwarts, including Sajjan Jindal, CMD, JSW Steel; Prashant Ruia, Director, Essar Group; P K Singh, CMD, SAIL; and Rita Singh, CMD, MESCO Steel, are slated to attend the day-long conference at Le Meridien hotel.
The conference is being organized by KATM, a leading multi-commodity e-commerce platform, with support from Union Ministry of Steel, JSW Steel, ESSAR Steel, SAIL, MESCO Steel and Arttdinox. Over 300 delegates from 15 countries, including China, Japan, South Korea, Russia and Iran, ar
e attending the event.
Around 25 steel experts will participate in the brainstorming sessions on issues like Demand Generation in ‘Infrastructure’ (Bridges, Highways & Flyovers, Projects &Construction, Defence); ‘Transit System’ (Rail, Metro, Shipping), ‘Automobiles’, ‘Rural’ (low housing, sanitation, agricultural equipments, warehousing and steel silos) and ‘Consumer Durables and General Engineering’ (white goods, furniture, pipes & tubes) besides ‘Wealth from Waste: Scrap Recycling’.
The proposed National Steel Policy, imposition of anti-dumping and safeguard duties, emphasis on cashless transactions and need for innovative policies leading to increase in domestic consumption are among the other major issues that will dominate the proceedings of ‘Make in Steel’ Conference.
Experts will discuss measures to ensure cashless transactions in steel sector in the wake of demonetization of high value currencies and the country’s push towards becoming a less-cash economy. Use of Swadeshi steel, in tune with the Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ programme, for sustainable growth of the industry, will also come for deliberations