Steel Minister Calls For Production Cost Reduction Roadmap

Steel Minister Ram Chandra Prasad Singh has asked state-owned entities in the sector to prepare a roadmap to chart out cost reduction in steel in the next six months.

Addressing Steel Ministry officials and representatives of the steel public sector entities, Mr Singh asked them to look into ways to reduce the cost of coking coal, which is the key commodity required for steel production and is a major cost element.

Coking coal, which is mostly imported, is quite costly and adds to the price of finished steel. On being informed about this aspect, the minister said that reduction in steel production cost should be undertaken through measures like increase in pellets usage and pulverised coal injection.

Pulverised coal injection is a process which involves blowing large volumes of fine coal granules in to the blast furnace.

The minister further informed the officials that all these measures would be reviewed on a monthly basis through a dedicated steel dashboard.