ovt set to liberalise coal mining sector

NEW DELHI: The government will further liberalise coal mining sector to improve coal availability and supply as a critical raw material for steel products, said AK Dua, secretary, department of industrial policy and promotion.

Mr Dua said this would address the constraints in the import of coking coal in terms of tariffs and handling costs. This would help the steel industry and in turn the tube industry to meet demands from the rapidly-growing infrastructure sector in India.

Infrastructure problems and high transactional costs can be tackled with the concept of investment regions, he said. The management of the region would be responsible for legal powers for land usage, external connectivity and reduction of transactional costs.

Such measures would help to raise the production of steel, as well as make it cheaper, which will benefit the Rs 18,000 crore tubes industry, he said. India has an installed capacity of 40mt per annum of steel. Recently, South Korean steel maker Posco’s land acquisition problems in Orissa were addressed last week, when the state government transferred a portion of land to Posco.

CII precision tubes division chairman N Srikanth said that the tubes industry was growing at 18% per year and one of the major concerns of the industry was cost competitiveness, especially in view of the threat from Chinese imports.

While saying that the steel majors had announced expansion plans, Tata Steel executive-in-charge (tubes) Vivek Kamra said that the raw material situation will be better in the next three years as more capacity gets built.