The steel minister has also called for snatching opportunities from competitors like China to emerge as a global player in steel.

In order to emerge as a competitive force internationally in steel sector, Indian PSUs will have to follow practices of private sector firms that account for 80-82 percent of the domestic production, Union Minister Chaudhary Birender Singh has said.

The steel minister has also called for snatching opportunities from competitors like China to emerge as a global player in steel.

“The PSUs, which contribute about 18-20 percent of the steel production, should try to learn from the private sector, which accounted for the balance 80-82 percent of the production, if India has to emerge as a strong and competitive force internationally,” minutes of a recent meeting quoted Singh as saying.

The minister also underlined the need for strengthening the country’s position in the steel sector, while focussing on the requirement of producing high-quality alloy.

Over the policy restrictions on the Central and state governments to buy domestic steel, the minister clarified that there were some exemptions for high-quality grade steel that is not available domestically.

Expressing confidence that steel demand was virtually guaranteed for the next five decades, the minister in the minutes pointed out: “We were behind in snatching competition from other competitors like China, and should use more of our native innovative instincts to become a major player in the global market”.

Singh said the steel industry had come out of its crisis in the last 3-4 years and was in a position to look forward towards growth.

The National Steel Policy 2017 has set a target of 300 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) of production capacity by 2030.

The production capacity in 2017-18 has reached 137.97 million tonnes (MT).

The world crude steel production in 2017 registered a growth rate of about 5.3 percent as compared to the previous year. The global production in 2017 stood at 1,691.2 million tonnes.