Govt taking all steps to ensure quality & price are right: Steel Secretary

New Delhi: The Government is taking all measures to ensure that the quality and price of steel are "right", Steel Secretary Sandeep Pondrik said on Thursday even as he sounded confident of the country achieving the target of having 300-million tonnes steel production by 2030.

Talking to PTI on the sidelines of the Steel India 2025 event here on Thursday, Poundrik defended the 12 percent safeguard duty on steel imports.

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"The government has already imposed a safeguard duty. It will be appropriately modified as per recommendation of DGTR. We are also ensuring that only quality steel comes into the country and low quality steel doesn't come only because of low price," he said.

To achieve that, he said, "we are bringing most of the grades of steel in quality control orders and BIS standards".

"So, we are taking all measures to ensure that the quality and price of steel is right," Poundrik added.

India on Monday imposed a 12 percent provisional safeguard duty for 200 days on certain steel products to protect domestic players from surge in cheap imports.

The decision follows a recommendation for the same by the commerce ministry's investigation arm DGTR. Last month, it was suggested that the duty be imposed.

"The safeguard duty has been imposed by government based on the recommendation of Director General of Trade Remedies, who has recommended 12 percent safeguard duty, that was done to prevent injury to the domestic industry because low-cost steel was being dumped in the country as per the investigation of DGTR," he said.

Stating that this is provisional duty that will be applicable for 200 days, he said in the meanwhile "DGTR will finalise its investigation, give its final findings to the government and based on that government will take a decision on the rate of the duty as well as the period of the duty up to which it will be implemented".

Poundrik also said the government is working on an international cooperation strategy to promote the Indian steel industry by encouraging them to open offices and acquire mining assets abroad and also collaborate on technology.

"So we are now encouraging our companies to become international players rather than being only domestic players," he added.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi in said in a virtual address at the event, that getting raw materials is a "major concern" for the steel sector, and urged all to strengthen global partnerships and secure supply chains.

"One major concern is raw material security. We still depend on imports for nickel, coking coal, and manganese. And hence, we must strengthen global partnerships, secure supply chains, and focus on technology upgrades," Modi said.

Poundrik said India has added 21 million tonnes capacity of steel to take it to 200 million tonnes from 179 million tonnes last year, adding, "we are expecting that we will reach 300 million tonnes by 2030 (amid) the (expansion) plans of the companies and the projects under implementation, we are confident that we will reach 300 million tonnes."

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