Steel ministry to set up 20 commercial vehicle scrapping centres across India

The Union Ministry of Steel, which is awaiting the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways’ (MoRTH) policy on the end-of-life of commercial vehicles likely to be announced on October 2, plans to set up 20 scrapping centres in various parts of the country to produce steel from the scrap. This is an effort to produce secondary steel and reduce dependence on steel imports.  

“The Ministry of Steel will introduce a steel scrap policy this year which, in conjunction with the much-awaited vehicle scrappage policy by MoRTH, will lay out the rules and regulations for using scrap from old vehicles to produce steel,” said Ms Aruna Sharma, secretary, Union Ministry of Steel, while speaking at a seminar on ‘Opportunities for Indian Steel Mills in Infrastructure sector’ in New Delhi yesterday.

“We have been waiting for the transport department to come out with its policy on the end-of-life of commercial vehicles. The steel scrap policy will be based on this. Once this policy is in place, India will start producing steel from scrap. For a steel producer, it doesn’t make a difference whether you make steel from iron ore or scrap. The National Steel Policy’s target of 300 million tonnes (mt) of steel production by 2030-31 includes steel made from both iron ore and scrap,” said Ms Sharma.

“The scrappage policy will reduce dependence on imports. Local scrap reduces dependence on imports for secondary steel plants in India. These scrap units will be set up either by the private sector or as public-private partnerships because the business proposition for scrap makes it attractive to the private sector,” Ms Sharma added.

“With India targeting 300 million tonnes a year steel production capacity by 2030-31, the focus of the Steel Ministry is on domestic consumption and making the sector globally competitive. The Ministry of Steel has identified construction and manufacturing sectors like rural development, urban infrastructure, roads and highways, and railways for maximum consumption of steel,” said Chauhary Birender Singh, Union minister of steel in his video message to the conference.

"The government has made a budgetary allocation of about Rs 600,000 crore for infrastructure this year. We have to ensure that the maximum steel produced in the country is used domestically. The new steel policy seeks to increase per capita steel consumption to 160kg by 2030 from the existing 64kg,” said Vishnu Deo Sai , the Union Minister of state for Steel.

The Minister said since India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world, extensive use of steel in sectors like construction, infrastructure, power, aerospace, industrial machinery, and consumer products is of strategic importance to the country.

Others who spoke at the seminar included P K Singh, chairman, Steel Authority of India; P Madhusudan, CMD, RINL; Peeyush Gupta, VP (Steel Marketing and Sales), Tata Steel; Vinay Shroff, EVP, Sales and Marketing, JSW Steel; and Yatinder Pal Singh Suri, MD, Outokumpu India.