New Delhi: Addressing the fourth Global Zinc Summit 2023 on Thursday, Union Minister of Steel and Civil Aviation Jyotiraditya Scindia stated that Indian Railways and Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) are working together to produce corrosion free steel. He added that at present, India is the fourth largest producer of Zinc in the world and 80 percent of Zinc produced in India is consumed domestically.

Zinc has tremendous marketing potential for sectors: Scindia

"With anti-corrosion features and quality to prevent oxidation in steel products, zinc has tremendous marketing potential for sectors like renewable energy, rural electrification, galvanising the structure in smart cities etc. Galvanised steel will give long life to infrastructure made in our long coastal line," Scindia added.

'Per capita steel consumption has gone up from 57 kgs to 78 kgs during the last 9 yrs'

Touching upon the crucial strides made by India’s steel sector, Scindia stated, "large scale augmentation will be done to double production from present capacity of 150 million tonnes per annum to 300 million tonnes per annum by 2030."

"India has already emerged as the second largest steel producer in the world and our per capita steel consumption has gone up from 57 kilograms to 78 kilograms during the last nine years," he added.

'We have awarded 54 applications submitted from close to 26 companies under the PLI for specialty steel'

The Minister said, "We have awarded 54 applications submitted from close to 26 companies under the Production Linked incentive (PLI) for specialty steel. The Union Cabinet in July 2021 approved a Rs 6,322 crore PLI scheme to boost the production of specialty steel in India. The PLI will help to extent 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 government has announced a huge capex of Rs 10 lakh crore for infrastructure development which has opened tremendous investment opportunities across the sectors.

Highlighting the Prime Minister’s commitment to net zero carbon emission by 2030, the steel minister said, “We have to learn to coexist with the environment, we have to learn to respect the environment, there can no longer be a linear model of take, make and dispose. Recycling has to become a part of our existence."

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