Tata Steel organised a workshop titled ‘Make in India - Equipment for the Steel Industry' in Kolkata.

About 120 delegates comprising senior government officials and executives from the public and private sector steel companies, representatives of equipment makers for the steel industry, technology suppliers and engineering companies attended the workshop.

Prominent among those who attended the day-long workshop were VK Thakral, Additional Secretary & Financial Advisor in the Union Ministry of Steel, who set the context for the deliberations at the workshop. TV Narendran, Managing Director, Tata Steel India & SEA, and CS Verma, Chairman, SAIL, put forth their perspective of the steel industry on the subject.

Others who attended the workshop included representatives of major companies like JSW, ESSAR, JSPL, Danieli, SMS, MECON, Tata Projects, TRF, TGS and L&T among others.

Steel ministry forecast indicates that the domestic production of steel will touch 300 million tonnes per annum (MnTPA) by 2025. For this to happen seamlessly, the steel industry will have to augment capacity by setting up Greenfield projects and by way of Brownfield expansions. Equipment makers will have to rise to the occasion and build capabilities to supply equipment that are required to set up new steel capacities at a fast pace.

Speakers at the workshop deliberated on the way forward in this regard. It was felt that it was necessary to facilitate capacity building among domestic equipment makers for the steel industry. Besides cost-benefits, this will also insulate domestic industry from the adverse effects of exchange rate fluctuations. 

The next step forward is to draw up a roadmap with the support by the Union Ministry of Steel to help equipment makers for the steel industry build their capacities that will enable the nation to reach a steel production capacity of 300 MnTPA by 2025.
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