Introduction

Iron is most widely found in the crust of the earth, in the form of various minerals (oxides,
hydrated ores, carbonates, sulphides, silicates and so on). Since prehistoric times, humans
have learned to prepare and process these minerals by various washing, crushing and
screening operations, by separating the gangue, sintering and pelletizing, in order to render
the ores smelt able and to obtain iron and steel. In historic times, a prosperous iron industry
developed in many countries, based on local supplies of ore and the proximity of forests to
supply the charcoal for fuel. Early in the 18th century, the discovery that coke could be used
in place of charcoal revolutionized the industry, making possible its rapid development as the
base on which all other developments of the Industrial Revolution rested. Great advantages
accrued to those countries where natural deposits of coal and iron ore lay close together.

Steelmaking was largely a development of the 19th century, with the invention of melting
processes; the Bessemer (1855), the open hearth, usually fired by producer gas (1864); and
the electric furnace (1900). Since the middle of the 20th century, oxygen conversion, pre-
eminently the Linz-Donowitz (LD) process by oxygen lance, has made it possible to
manufacture high quality steel with relatively low production costs.

Today, steel production is an index of national prosperity and the basis of mass production in
many other industries such as shipbuilding, automobiles, construction, machinery, tools, and
industrial and domestic equipment. The development of transport, in particular by sea, has
made the international exchange of the raw materials required (iron ores, coal, fuel oil, scrap
and additives) economically profitable. Therefore, the countries possessing iron ore deposits
near coal fields are no longer privileged, and large smelting plants and steelworks have been
built in the coastal regions of major industrialised countries and are supplied with raw
materials from exporting countries which are able to meet the present-day requirements for
high-grade materials.

During the past decades, so-called direct-reduction processes have been developed and have
met with success. The iron ores, in particular high-grade or upgraded ores, are reduced to
sponge iron by extracting the oxygen they contain, thus obtaining a ferrous material that
replaces scrap.

Application

The many applications of steel demonstrate best the great versatility of this material. Most
often, steel consumers’ needs are met by carbon steels. Good examples are sheets for deep-
drawn automobile bodies and appliances made of low-carbon steels, medium-carbon
structural steels and plates employed in all kinds of construction, high-carbon railroad rails,
and wires at all carbon levels used for hundreds of items. The addition of costly alloys begins
when combinations of properties are requested that cannot be met by carbon steels.

High-strength low-alloy steels

The demand for high strength, good weldability, and higher resistance to
atmospheric corrosion is met by a group called the high-strength low-alloy (HSLA) steels.
These grades have low carbon levels (e.g., 0.05 per cent) and contain small amounts of one or
a combination of elements such as chromium, nickel, molybdenum, vanadium, titanium,
and niobium. HSLA steels are used for oil or gas pipelines, ships, offshore structures, and
storage tanks.
Free-machining steels
This group, developed for good machinability and fabricated into bolts, screws, and nuts,
contains up to 0.35 per cent sulphur and 0.35 per cent lead; also, it sometimes has small
additions of tellurium or selenium. These elements form many inclusions, which are normally
avoided but are desired in this application because they break the long, hazardous strings
of metal that are usually formed during machining into small chips. This keeps tools and
work pieces clean, improves tool life, and permits machining at higher speeds.

Wear-resistant steels
Another group is the wear-resistant steels, made into wear plates for rock-processing
machinery, crushers, and power shovels. These are austenitic steels that contain about 1.2 per
cent carbon and 12 per cent manganese. The latter element is a strong austenizer; that is, it
keeps steel austenitic at room temperature. Manganese steel is often called Hadfield steels,
after their inventor, Robert Hadfield.
Wear resistance is brought about by the high work-hardening capabilities of these steels; this
in turn is generated during the pounding (i.e., deforming) of the surface, when a large number
of disturbances are created in the lattices of their crystals that effectively block the flow of
dislocations. In other words, the more pounding the steel takes, the stronger it becomes. Such
significant increases in strength by cold forming are also utilized in the production of high-
strength, cold-drawn wire such as those used in prestressed concrete or automobile tires. A
special case, piano wire drawn from 0.8-percent-carbon steel, can reach a tensile strength of
275 kilograms-forces per square millimetre.

Bearing steels
One important group that well demonstrates the enormous impact of material developments
on engineering possibilities is the steels used for roller and ball bearings. These steels often
contain 1 per cent carbon, 1.2 per cent chromium, 0.25 per cent nickel, and 0.25 per cent
molybdenum and are very hard after heat treatment. Most important, however, they are
extremely clean, having been purged of practically all inclusions by vacuum treatment of the
liquid steel. Inclusions are very harmful in bearings because they create stress concentrations
that result in low fatigue strength.

Stainless steels
This outstanding group receives its stainless characteristics from an invisible, self-healing
chromium oxide film that forms when chromium is added at concentrations greater than 10.5
per cent. There are three major groups, the austenitic, the ferritic, and the martensitic.

Valyrian steel
Using science to determine if Valerian steel from Game of Thrones can be recreated
The best corrosion resistance is obtained in austenitic stainless steels. Their microstructures
consist of very clean fcc crystals in which all alloying elements are held in solid solution.
These steels contain 16 to 26 per cent chromium and up to 35 per cent nickel, which, like
manganese, is a strong austenizer. (Indeed, manganese is sometimes used instead of nickel.)
Austenitic steels cannot be hardened by heat treatment; they are also nonmagnetic. The most
common type is the 18/8 or 304 grade, which contains 18 per cent chromium and 8 per cent
nickel.
The ferritic and martensitic groups both have a bcc microstructure. The latter has a higher
carbon level (up to 1.2 per cent); it can be hardened and is used for knives and tools. Ferritic
stainless steels contain only up to 0.12 per cent carbon. Both types have 11.5 to 29 per cent
chromium as their main alloy addition and practically no nickel. Their corrosion resistance is
modest, and they are ferromagnetic.
A special group of stainless steels is employed at high temperatures—e.g., 800° C (1,450° F).
Solution hardening is used in this group to keep the steels strong at such heat. They contain
up to 25 percent chromium and 20 percent nickel, in addition to small amounts of strong
carbide formers such as niobium or titanium to tie up the carbon and avoid a depletion of
chromium at the grain boundaries. For even more severe service, as in aircraft jet engines or
gas turbines, super alloys are used. These work on the same principle, but they are based on
nickel or cobalt or both and contain either no iron at all or only up to 30 percent iron. Their
maximum service temperature can reach 80 percent of their melting point.

Electrical steels
An important group of steels, necessary for the generation and transmission of electrical
power, is the high-silicon electrical steels. Electromagnets for alternating current are always
made by laminating many thin sheets, which are insulated in order to minimize the flow of
eddy currents and thereby reduce current losses and heat generation. A further improvement
is achieved by adding up to 4.5 per cent silicon, which imparts high electrical resistance. For
electric transformers, grain-oriented sheets are often used; these contain about 3.5 per cent
silicon and are rolled and annealed in such a way that the edges of the unit cubes are oriented
parallel to the direction of rolling. This improves the magnetic flux density by about 30 per
cent.

Tool steels
Tool steels are produced in small quantities, contain expensive alloys, and are often sold only
by the kilogram and by their individual trade names. Generally they are very hard, wear-
resistant, tough, and inert to local overheating, and frequently engineered to particular service
requirements. They also have to be dimensionally stable during hardening and tempering.
They contain strong carbide formers such as tungsten, molybdenum, vanadium, and
chromium in different combinations and often cobalt or nickel to improve high-temperature
performance.

Shape and surface

In principle, steel is formed into either flat products or long products, both of which have
either a hot-rolled, cold-formed, or coated surface.

Flat products
Flat products include plates, hot-rolled strip and sheets, and cold-rolled strip and sheets; all
have a great variety of surface conditions. They are rolled from slabs, which are considered a
semi finished product and are normally not sold. Provided by either a continuous caster or
rolled from ingots by a slabbing mill, slabs are 50 to 250 millimetres thick, 0.6 to 2.6 metres
wide, and up to 12 metres long (that is, 2 to 10 inches thick, 24 to 104 inches wide, and up to
40 feet long).Plates are hot-rolled either from slabs or directly from ingots. Maximum
dimensions vary with available slab sizes or ingot weights and with the sizes of installed
rolling mills and auxiliary equipment. Thickness can be as low as 5 millimetres, but it is
usually heavier (e.g., 25 millimetres) and can go as high as 200 millimetres. The width of
plates is usually between 1.5 to 3.5 metres, but there are plants that can roll plates up to 5.5
metres wide. The maximum plate length that the largest mills can produce is 35 metres.
Plates are usually made in small quantities and to a customer’s specification, with different
dimensions and tolerances for flatness, profile, straightness, and other properties. The edges
can be ordered in either as-rolled condition or sheared, machined, or gas-cut. Plates are also
sometimes cladded with corrosion-resistant sheets.

Hot-rolled strip is often shipped directly from the hot-strip mill in a large coil weighing 10 to
35 tons. Its thickness is 1.5 to 12 millimetres, and its width, depending on the available mill,
is 0.7 to 2 metres. Frequently, the large coils are slit into narrower coils or edge trimmed, or
they are cut to length into sheets at the finishing section of a steel plant or at a service
centre. Coils and sheets are shipped either with the hot-rolled surface or with the scale
removed and the surface oiled.
Cold-rolled strip, produced from hot-rolled strip, is 0.1 to 2 millimetres thick and also up to 2
metres wide, depending on a shop’s facilities. Steel plants supply this product in coils or
sheets, the latter being cut on special shear lines. Cold-rolled products are available in a great
variety of surface conditions, often with a specific roughness, electrolytically cleaned,
chemically treated, oiled, or coated with metals such as zinc, tin, chromium, and aluminium
or with organic substances. They are usually produced to strict dimensional tolerances in
order to assure efficient performance in the highly demanding operations of automated
consumer-products industries.

Long products

Long products are made of either blooms or billets, which are, like slabs, considered a semi
finished product and are cast by a continuous caster or rolled at a blooming mill. Billets have
a cross section 50 to 125 millimetres square, and blooms are 125 to 400 millimetres square.
In practice, they are not precisely distinguished by these dimensions, and there is
considerable overlap in the use of the two terms.
Long products include bars, rods and wires, structural shapes and rails, and tubes. Bars are
long products with square, rectangular, flat, round, hexagonal, or octagonal cross sections.
The most important bar products are the rounds, which can reach a diameter of 250
millimetres. They are sometimes cold-drawn or even ground to very precise dimensions for
use in machine parts. A special group of rounds are the reinforcing bars. Produced in
diameters of 10 to 50 millimetres, they provide tensile strength to concrete sections subjected
to a bending load. They normally have hot-rolled protrusions on their surface to improve
bonding with concrete. Some bar mills also produce small channels, angles, tees, zees, and
fence-post sections, with a maximum flange length of 75 millimetres, and call these products
merchant bars.
Hot-rolled wire rods are produced in diameters between 5.5 and 12.5 millimetres and are
shipped in coils weighing up to two tons. A great portion of these rods are cold-drawn into
wire, which is often covered afterward by a metallic coating for corrosion protection. The use
of wire is extremely wide, ranging from cords for belted tires to cables for suspension
bridges.
The common structural shapes are wide flange I-beams, standard I-beams, channels, angles,
tees, zees, H-pilings, and sheet pilings. All these shapes are standardized, and each company
has price lists showing which sections are produced and in which quality and length they can
be supplied. Railroad rails are always produced to national standards. In the United States, for
example, there are rails weighing 115, 132, and 140 pounds per yard and cut to lengths of 39
or 78 feet. There are also a great number of special rails—e.g., for cranes and heavy transfer
cars or for use in mines and construction.
Tubular steels are broadly grouped into welded and seamless products. Longitudinally
welded tubes are normally produced up to 500 millimetres in diameter and 10 millimetres in
wall thickness. Pipes produced from heavy plates are also longitudinally welded after being
formed in a U-ing and O-ing operation; they can be 0.8 to 2 metres in diameter, with wall
thicknesses up to 180 millimetres. Spiral-welded pipes are sometimes produced in diameters
up to 1.5 metres. Seamless tubes are subjected to more demanding service; they are often
rolled in diameters ranging from 120 to 400 millimetres and in wall thicknesses up to 15
millimetres, although special rolling mills can often increase the diameter to 650 millimetres.
Smaller diameter tubes, both welded and seamless, can be produced by reduction mills or
cold-drawing benches. Tubes are frequently machined on both ends for various coupling
systems and coated with organic material.

Standards

Specifications for steel products as well as testing procedures are normally included in the
general standard systems of most industrial countries. Institutions providing these standards
are the American Society for Testing and Materials, Philadelphia; British Standards Institute,
London;, Berlin; Japanese Industrial Standards Committee, Tokyo; Brussels;
and International Organization for standardization, Geneva.

There are also product manuals published by a number of associations and societies,
sometimes for special products only that are often used as standards in technical
specifications and commercial agreements. Organizations that issue these include the
American Iron and Steel Institute, Washington, D.C.; Society of Automotive Engineers, ,
Pennsylvania.; American Petroleum Institute, Washington, D.C.; and American Society of
Mechanical Engineers, New York City
Each steel producer publishes lists showing the steel grades and dimensions that it can
deliver. Special alloys and coatings are often supplied under a company-owned trademark.
There are also publications that provide cross-references for similar steel grades among the
various standards and trademarks issued in different countries.

India’s finished steel consumption grew at a CAGR of 5.69 per cent during FY08-FY18 to
reach 90.68 MT.
India’s crude steel and finished steel production increased to 103.13 MT and 104.98 MT in
2017-18, respectively.
In 2017-18, the country’s finished steel exports increased 17 per cent year-on-year to 9.62
million tonnes (MT), as compared to 8.24 MT in 2016-17. Exports and imports of finished
steel stood at 0.72 MT and 1.12 MT, respectively, in FY20P (up to May).
Current financials of the sector

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2017-2018 2018-2019 2019-2020

TATA Steel JSW Steel SAIL

Imports

• Iron & steel are freely importable.

• Data on import of total finished steel (alloy/stainless + non alloy) is given below for last
five years and April-August 2019-20 (prov.):

9.32

India was a net importer of steel during the 2018-19 fiscal year, the first time in three years,
as the country lost market share among its traditional steel buyers and imports jumped on
demand for higher-quality steel domestically.
The country's finished steel exports fell by 34% in the fiscal year that ended in March to 6.36
million tonnes, according to preliminary government data given to Reuters on Friday. During
the same period, finished steel imports rose 4.7% to 7.84 million tonnes

Imports from the four Asian countries also climbed as they diverted supply into India.
Imports of value-added steel, primarily for the auto sector and high-end electrical steel were
the biggest source of imports. The imports for producing value-added steel for the auto sector
is mainly by foreign steelmakers like POSCO.

Exports

• Iron & steel are freely exportable.

• India emerged as a net exporter of total finished steel in 2016-17 and 2017-18 but is
currently a net importer.
• Data on export of total finished steel (alloy/stainless + non alloy) is given below for
last five years and April-August 2019-20 (prov.):

5.59

The country's total steel exports fell 34 per cent in 2018-19 to 6.36 million tonne (MT)
compared to the preceding fiscal, Parliament was informed Monday. In comparison to 2017-
18 (9.62 million tonnes), India's total steel export has declined by 34 per cent in 2018-19 and
stood at 6.36 million tonnes.

The government has taken appropriate measures such as anti-dumping and countervailing
duties in order to protect the domestic industry from unfair external competition.

Government has also notified 53 Steel and Steel Product (Quality Control) Orders which is
applicable for both domestic production as well as imports.

The Steel Quality Control Order are implemented in the public interest for protection of
human, animal and plant, safety of environment, prevention of unfair trade practices and
national security, he added.

New development in the sector

In 2018-19, India’s crude steel capacity was 137.9 MT and production was 106.56 MT
(Provisional) as against a production of 103.13 MT in 2017-18. In 2018-19, with an increase
of 3.3% over the previous year, India has attained the position of 2nd largest steel producer in
the world, after China. The Per Capita steel consumption in India as per 2017-18 data was
around 69 kg as against the world average of around 208 kg. There are primarily 2 routes of
steel production: BF/BOF route also called the Oxygen route Electric route comprising of
Electric Arc Furnace and Electric Induction Furnace. As per 2017-18 data, about 54% steel is
produced through the Electric Furnace route of which about 28% steel is produced through
the Electric Induction Furnace (EIF) route and 26% from Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) route.
About 46% steel is produced through the conventional integrated route of BF-BOF route as
against the world average of around 70%. The structure of the Indian Iron & Steel Sector is
given below: Blast Furnace (BF): 60 Basic Oxygen Furnace (BOF): 18 units Electric Arc
Furnace (EAF): 50 Electric Induction Furnace (EIF): 999 Rolling Mills: 1222 Direct
Reduced Iron units: 312 . India is the world’s largest producer of Direct Reduced Iron (DRI)
or Sponge Iron. During 2017-18, total production of sponge iron is reported at around 30.511
million tonnes of which 85% are coal based plants and 15% are gas based plants. Post-
liberalization, technological profile of the Indian Steel Industry has undergone substantial
change. With setting up of new large modern steel plants based on state of-the-art
technologies and modernization/ expansion of existing steel plants, there is a upward trend in
efficiency parameters of operation viz. productivity, energy efficiency, environment
friendliness etc. The Indian Iron & Steel industry needs to pursue research for development &
adoption of such technologies which are relevant to natural resource endowment of the
country, which minimize damage to the environment, optimize resource utilization; facilitate
achievement of global standards of productivity & efficiency and development of front end &
strategic steel based materials. Against this backdrop, the issue of utmost importance is the
R&D intervention to find out techno-economic solutions to use indigenous raw material
resources. Another area that requires attention is the product development to develop and
produce high performance steel indigenously. 3 The R&D efforts by the Indian steel
companies out of their own corpus have mainly concentrated on improving internal processes
related to saving costs and improving efficiency. Process improvements such as beneficiation
and palletisation’s of iron ore have received good response in the industry. Adoption of
continuous casting together with thin slab casting as well as dedicated technologies for
harnessing waste heat are drawing the attention of the steel companies. These have led to
improved productivity and energy efficiency in the Indian steel industries. However, there are
certain constraints in raw material quality, particularly high Alumina in Indian iron ore and
high ash in Indian coal, which adversely affect the techno economic performance of the
whole industry. To address these constrains and also to sustain the projected high growth rate,
there is an urgent need for concerted R&D and technology intervention in the iron and steel
sector. The steel companies like SAIL, Tata Steel, JSW Steel and Essar Steel have
accomplished some significant work in the area of raw material beneficiation, agglomeration
and product development. However, the major focus of work in these companies generally
relates to incremental technology development to address the present and short term needs of
various production units. As a matter of fact, barring some commendable product
development efforts, their contributions towards disruptive technology development have not
been noteworthy. The actual investment on R&D by the large steel companies in India varies
from company to company in the range of 0.07-0.58% of their sales turnover. Secondary
Steel sector has limited capacity for undertaking research and development. Ministry of Steel
is therefore, pursuing several R&D projects for the benefit of the secondary sector units.
Expenditure on R&D of some of the leading steel companies in India in 2017-18.
SI .NO Steel Company R&D Expenditure % of Turnover of
(Rs Crore) the Company
1 SAIL 335.50 0.58
2 RINL 20.06 0.12
3 Tata Steel 182.00 0.30
4 JSW (Vijaynagar Works) 32.00 0.07

R&D scenario in Steel companies abroad, particularly, in China, Japan and South Korea is
quite different. They have large outlay of funds earmarked for R&D and also have visible tie-
up with external laboratories and academic institutions. Annual R&D investment in these
companies is high which is up to 1% of their sales turnover. Steel industry across the globe,
and particularly in the advanced countries have identified climate change as a major
challenge for more than two decades and have been proactive in reducing energy
consumption and green house gas emissions by aggressive R&D and technology
interventions adopting the clean & green and state of-art technologies in all areas of
production. In India also, some of the R&D projects undertaken by research laboratories and
steel plants are also being directed towards reduction of energy consumption and Green
House Gas Emission (GHG).
The other major project which are now being implemented is use of Electric arc furnace
under the name of greenfield type project, also other development which are still in the way
of completion are – Integrated nanotechnology for coke oven effluent treatment by DSP,
SIAL; Conversion of emitted CO2 to chemical fuels by IMMT Bhubaneswar ; Waste
Management of Generated Sludge from Indian Steel and Steel Related Plants: A Sustainable
Business Model by BITS-Pilani , Hyderabad Campus.
Potential development in metal industry
Demand growth: -Rise in infrastructure development and automotive production driving
growth in the sector. Power and cement industries also aiding growth in the metals and
mining sector. Demand for iron and steel is set to continue, given the strong growth
expectations for the residential and commercial building industry. India holds a fair
advantage in cost of production and conversion cost with 3rd largest steel producer in the
world.

Increasing investment: -The Ministry of Steel aims to increase the steel production capacity
to 300 million tonnes by 2030-31 from 134.6 million tonnes in 2017-2018 indicating new
opportunities in the sector. The average growth rate of the Indian Iron and Steel Industry is
11.36%.

Policy support: - Union Minister for Steel, Shri Chaudhary Birender Singh has exhorted the
steel industry to make the year 2019 the year of expansion to accelerate the pace of work
towards achieving the target of 300 million tonnes by 2030-31, as envisaged by National
Steel Policy.

100 percent FDI allowed in the mining sector and exploration of metal and non-metal ores
under the Automatic Route.

National Mineral Policy 2019 launched for transparency, better regulation and enforcement,
balanced social and economic growth into the sector

Policies like preference of domestically use of steel, Awaas yojana, Gram Sadak yojana,Bilji
Yojana etc is giving boost to steel and metal industry.

Make in India initiative by GoI has led to saving of Rs 8000 crore till date. Exchange of
technology with MSME would enhance small and large scale metal industry. Cost efficient
production and domestic availability of iron ore, coke and natural gas. Export promotion
(Duty exemption schemes) which enables exporters to import relevant raw material and other
input in required quantities duty free for production of export goods.

Competitive advantage: -As of 2018, India is the world’s second largest producer of crude
steel (up from eighth spot in 2003). India’s steel production in 2018 stood at 106.5 MT.

Easy availability of low-cost manpower and presence of abundant iron ore reserves make
India competitive in the global set up.

India is home to the fifth-highest reserves of iron ore in the world.

Its strategic location enables convenient exports to developed as well as the fast developing
Asian markets India produces 95 minerals– 4 fuel-related minerals, 10 metallic minerals, 23
non-metallic minerals, 3 atomic minerals and 55 minor minerals (including building and
other minerals).
Investments in steel sector

Some of the major investments in the Indian steel industry are as follows:

● Public sector mining giant National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) is

setting up a greenfield 3-million tonne per annum steel mill in Karnataka at an
estimated investment of Rs 15,525 crore (US$ 2.8 billion). Further investments have
also been planned by NMDC in coming years in view of requirement of Iron Ore for
production of 300 MT steel by 2030.
● SAIL is currently expanding its hot metal capacity from 13 MTPA to 23 MTPA, at an
investment of around Rs. 72,000 crores.
● Government has planned Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs) with four iron ore rich
states i.e., Karnataka, Jharkhand, Orissa, and Chhattisgarh to set up steel plants having
capacity between 3 to 6 MTPA.
● Posco Korea, the multinational Korean steel company, has signed an agreement with
Shree Uttam Steel and Power (part of Uttam Galva Group) to set up a steel plant at
Satarda in Maharashtra.
● ArcelorMittal, the world's leading steel maker, has agreed a joint venture with Steel
Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) to set up an automotive steel manufacturing facility in
India.
● JSW Steel has announced to add capacity to make its plant in Karnataka the largest at
20 MT by 2022.

Government Initiatives

 An export duty of 30 per cent has been levied on iron ore (lumps and fines) to ensure
supply to domestic steel industry.
 Government of India’s focus on infrastructure and restarting road projects is aiding
the boost in demand for steel. Also, further likely acceleration in rural economy and
infrastructure is expected to lead to growth in demand for steel.
 The Union Cabinet, Government of India has approved the National Steel Policy
(NSP) 2017, as it seeks to create a globally competitive steel industry in India. NSP
2017 envisages 300 million tonnes (MT) steel-making capacity and 160 kgs per capita
steel consumption by 2030-31.
 The Ministry of Steel is facilitating setting up of an industry driven Steel Research
and Technology Mission of India (SRTMI) in association with the public and private
sector steel companies to spearhead research and development activities in the iron
and steel industry at an initial corpus of Rs 200 crore (US$ 30 million).
 The Government of India raised import duty on most steel items twice, each time by
2.5 per cent and imposed measures including anti-dumping and safeguard duties on
iron and steel items.

Challenges
Even while being the second largest producer of crude steel, India is not able to access its full
potential in production of structural steel and relies on import of structural steel to a certain
extent. These are some major challenges faced by this industry:
  Lack of Capital:
The iron and steel industry requires large capital investment which a developing
country like India cannot afford. Many of the public sector integrated steel plants have
been established with the help of foreign aid. This increases the cost of construction
of steel structures manifold.
 Lack of Technology:
Throughout the 1960s and up to the oil crisis in mid-1970s, Indian steel industry was
characterised by a high degree of technological efficiency. This technology was
mainly from abroad. But during the following time period after the oil crisis, steep
hike in fuel costs and escalation of other costs related to inputs for steel
manufacturing, reduced the margin of profit of the steel plants in the country.
Resultantly, it caused lower levels of investment in technological developments. In
countries like Japan and Korea, less than 1.1 tonnes of crude steel is required to
produce a tonne of saleable steel. In India, the average is still high at 1.2 tonnes.
 Low Productivity:
The per capita labour productivity in India is at 90-100 tonnes which is one of the
lowest in the world. To put it into perspective, a mini mill in the U.S. employs less
than 300 employees to produce 1.2 million tonnes of hot rolled coils. A comparable
facility in India employs 5,000 workers. Therefore, there is an urgent need to increase
the productivity which requires retraining and redevelopment of the labour force.
 Low potential utilisation:
The potential utilisation in iron and steel is very low. Rarely the potential utilisation
exceeds 80%. This is caused by several factors, like strikes, lockouts, scarcity of raw
materials, energy crisis, inefficient administration, etc.
 Shortage of metallurgical coal:
Although India has huge deposits of high grade iron ore, the coal reserves, especially
high grade cooking coal for smelting iron are limited. Many steel plants are forced to
import metallurgical coal. For example, steel plant at Vishakhapatnam has to import
coal from Australia. This results in the increased cost for locally produced steel and
therefore less demand. Serious thought is now being given to replace imported coal by
natural gas.
 Inferior quality of products:
Lack of modern technological and capital inputs and weak infrastructural facilities
leads to a process of steel making which is more time consuming, expensive and
yields inferior variety of goods, forcing us to import better quality steel from abroad.

Strategies
 Indian steel companies have now started benchmarking their facilities and processes
against global standards, to enhance productivity.
 These steps are expected to help Indian companies improve raw material and energy
consumption as well as improve compliance with environmental and pollution
yardsticks.
 Companies are attempting coal gasification and gas-based Direct-Reduced Iron (DRI)
production. Other alternative technologies such as Hlsmelt, Finex and ITmk3 being
adopted to produce hot metal.
 Ministry of Steel has issued necessary direction to the steel companies to frame a
strategy for taking up more R&D projects by spending at least 1 per cent of their sales
turnover on R&D to facilitate technological innovations in the steel sector.
  Ministry has established a task force to identify the need for technology development
and R&D.
 Ministry has adopted energy efficiency improvement projects for mills operating with
obsolete technologies.
 In January 2017, Noamundi iron ore mine of Tata Steel introduced drone technology
in mine monitoring.

Conclusion
According to the Global Steel Market outlook report, the steel demand will increase from
1537 MT in 2014 to 1992 MT in 2030.Infrastructure development in developing economies
will increase the demand for iron and steel in the years to come. The pricing of steel is based
on the demand-supply market gaps, global steel prices and the rates of raw materials.

Generally, market gaps in meeting the demands for steel are managed with the import of
steel. The Indian Steel Industry is expected to flourish with the National Steel Policy 2017.
As per the policy, domestic manufacturing will be given more preference. The policy charts a
growth plan for the Indian Iron and Steel industry with the demand and supply side growth by
2030-31.

Working with metals is not an easy task. Quality grades have to be maintained as per set
quality standards. There can be industrial waste that has to be disposed carefully to avoid
minimum damage to the environment. Safety gear should be provided to production floor
staff to avoid mishaps. And safety inspectors have to follow the safety protocols to avoid
damage to life and property.

Iron and Steel will continue to be a flourishing industry by grabbing the opportunities in this
industry with the required knowledge to make the most of it. Training programs can empower
the professionals in this industry to tackle the challenges that they may come across in
meeting the rising demands of this industry.
References:
 https://www.crisilresearch.com
 https://www.ibef.org/industry/steel.aspx
 https://steel.gov.in
 https://www.tatasteel.com
 Metals and Mining, IBEF
 EY, Indian Chamber of Commerce
 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/topic/metal-sector/news
 https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/tags/metal-sector.html
 India Exports Report, International Trade Administration
 https://www.infodriveindia.com/products/iron-and-steel.aspx
 https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/77df/16f3c954785af9e61b48e69f2559463bf9c3.pdf
 https://www.oecd.org/industry/ind/steel-market-developments-Q2-2019.pdf