Steel majors' agenda for revival

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 20. The newly formed Indian Steel Alliance under the aegis of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has urged the Finance Minister, Mr. Yashwant Sinha, to swiftly intervene to revitalise the steel industry that has already suffered Rs. 1,000 crore losses in the first quarter of the current fiscal. An ISA delegation that briefed the Finance Minister on the state of the industry in a meeting has suggested a twin agenda for the industry's revival covering domestic and export markets.

The key elements of the domestic agenda included review of duties and levies on the industry, reduction of and maintaining current rates of administered prices of inputs to the industry, a special package for financial restructuring and implementation of a step up in infrastructure investment.

For exports, the ISA suggested restrucring of the duty drawback scheme and other specific steps for export promotion. The alliance also recommended specific political support for the Indian steel industry during international negotiations.

The group led by Dr. J. J. Irani, director, Tata Sons, included the SAIL Chairman, Mr. Arvind Pande, the Managing Director of Tata Steel, Mr. B. Muthuraman, Mr. Shashi Ruia of Essar Steel, Mr. Sajjan Jindal of Jindal Vijayanagar Steel, Mr. Rajesh Shah of Mukund, Mr. Vinod Garg of Ispat Industries and the CII Deputy Director General, Mr. N. Srinivasan.

The members of the alliance informed the Finance Minister about the changes in the global steel industry and its negative impact on the steel sector. The ISA said the cumulative losses of the steel sector in the first quarter of the current fiscal alone were about Rs. 1,000 crores.

Prices have declined by about 30 to 40 per cent in the last two years and it was expected that global over-caapcity would continue to exist for the next five years. This was further compounded by the fact that global markets were being closed to Indian producers by imposition of anti-dumping action and measures such as section 201 investigations launched by the U.S.

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Section  : Business
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