MINISTRY OF STEEL ANNUAL REPORT 2007-08 Chapter CONTENTS Page No. I HIGHLIGHTS 04 II DEVELOPMENT OF THE INDIAN STEEL SECTOR 10 DURING THE PAST SIXTY YEARS III ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE AND 17 FUNCTIONS OF MINISTRY OF STEEL IV PUBLIC SECTOR 22 V PRIVATE SECTOR 37 VI RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT 46 VII ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT MANAGEMENT 55 VIII DEVELOPMENT OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY 72 IX SAFETY 79 X WELFARE OF WEAKER SECTIONS OF SOCIETY 82 XI VIGILANCE 90 XII GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL MECHANISM 95 XIII IMPLEMENTATION OF PROVISIONS OF 98 PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES ACT, 1995 XIV PROGRESSIVE USE OF HINDI 106 XV EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN 110 XVI NEW INITIATIVES/INNOVATIVE SCHEMES 114 XVII RECOGNITION AND AWARDS 128 XVIII PROMOTION OF STEEL USAGE 132 XIX CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY 135 XX TECHNICAL INSTITUTES UNDER THE MINISTRY OF STEEL 144 XXI IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RIGHT TO INFORMATION ACT, 2005 148 XXII DEVELOPMENT OF NORTH-EASTERN REGION 150 ANNEXURES 152-164 Steel Summit - 2007 held in New Delhi on 26th- 27th March, 2007, graced by the presence of Hon’ble Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, Hon’ble Union Minister for Chemicals & Fertilisers and Steel, Shri Ram Vilas Paswan and Hon’ble Union Minister of State for Steel, Dr. Akhilesh Das. Also seen in the picture are Secretary (Steel), Shri R. S. Pandey, Chairman SAIL, Shri S.K. Roongta and MD Tata Steel, Shri B.Muthuraman. CHAPTER - I HIGHLIGHTS STEEL SECTOR TRENDS India emerged as the fifth largest crude steel producing country in the world in the year 2006 as against eighth position three years back. India is expected to become the second largest producer of steel in the world by the year 2015. India also maintained its lead position as the world’s largest producer of direct reduced iron or sponge iron. The country is likely to achieve a Steel production capacity of nearly 124 million tonnes by the year 2011-12. 194 Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) have been signed in various States with a total planned capacity of around 243 million tonnes, and a total proposed investment of over Rs. 5.15 lakh crore. Major investment plans are in the States of Orissa, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal. Production, consumption and export of finished steel for the period April-December, 2007 grew by 6.6%, 12.3 % and 9.1 % respectively as compared to the corresponding period of the previous year. Data relating to production, consumption, import and export of finished steel (alloy & non-alloy) and crude steel from the year 2002-03 onwards are reflected in the table below: (in million tonnes) 2002 - 2003 - 2004 - 2005 - 2006 - 2007 - 08* 03 04 05 06 07 (April - December) Finished Steel Production 37.166 40.709 43.513 46.566 52.529 40.117 including Alloy Steel Consumption 30.677 33.119 36.377 41.433 46.783 36.992 Import 1.663 1.753 2.293 4.305 4.927 5.325 Export 4.517 5.207 4.705 4.801 5.242 3.850 Crude Steel Production 34.707 38.727 43.437 46.460 50.817 39.608 *Provisional Major initiatives taken by the Ministry of Steel during the year 2007-08 An Inter-Ministerial Group (IMG) was constituted to monitor, facilitate and coordinate speedy actualisation of major steel investments in the country. A Steel Pricing Monitoring Committee was formed for keeping track of steel price movements and to advise the industry on their product-mix as well as long-term capacity addition. The Committee held four meetings in January, March, June and October 2007. Present per capita consumption in the country is only around 46 kg (2006) against the world average of 150 kg and that of 400 kg in developed countries. The awareness campaign to increase domestic steel consumption was intensified during the year. 4 ANNUAL REPORT 2007-08 Preparatory action for take off of the ‘Steel Research & Development Mission (SRDM)’ in virtual mode with funding from main/ major steel producers was completed. Steel Technology Centre at IIT, Kharagpur to promote R&D in iron & steel sector was approved, at a cost of Rs. 22.26 crore for 5 years. Initiatives under Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) - Host Country Approval (HCA) to 58 proposals from the iron and steel plants in India accorded which will result in Green House Gas abatement worth 66 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. Under the Asia Pacific Partnership on Clean Development and Climate (APPCDC), Rourkela Steel Plant of SAIL has been selected. A team from Japan visited India during 14th-17th January, 2008 for diagnostic study of Rourkela Steel Plant for identification of gaps in energy efficiency and environment-friendly technologies. In the five year Plan for steel sector, a new scheme named ‘Scheme for promotion of R&D in the Iron & Steel Sector’ has been included with a budgetary provision of Rs. 118 crore. A Quality Control Order on 17 selected steel products was issued by the Department of Consumer Affairs on 12th November, 2007 under which production, sale or distribution and storage of sub-standard products would be an offence with effect from 12th May, 2008. An International Seminar on Iron Ore beneficiation and pelletisation organised in October, 2007 to encourage iron ore pelletisation capacity using iron ore fines. A study on adequacy of infrastructure for the Proposed Expansion in Steel Capacities in the 11th Plan with special reference to the states of Orissa, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh has been completed. A Discussion paper on ‘Iron Ore Fine utilisation in India’ was brought out by Economic Research Unit, Ministry of Steel in October, 2007. For resolving railway infrastructure bottlenecks, a Coordination Committee, consisting of representatives from Steel Industry, Ministry of Steel and Railway Board has been constituted. Reform of steel sector data was carried out to get accurate estimates of capacity and production figures and the existing database was updated on the basis of the corrective exercises undertaken during the year. Performance of PSUs and companies under the Ministry The combined Profit Before Tax (PBT) of the PSUs and the Companies under this Ministry have gone up from around Rs. 14,322 crore in 2004-05 to Rs. 15,566 crore in 2006-07. The combined performance of these companies up to the third quarter of 2007-08 shows a combined PBT in the region of Rs. 13,655 crore. The contribution to Central and State Government exchequers by way of excise duty, customs duty, dividend, corporate tax, sales tax, royalty etc. has gone up by 84 % from Rs. 8,978 crore in 2004-05 to Rs. 16,475 crore in 2006-07 and the trends up to the third quarter of 2007-08 indicate a figure of Rs. 12,596 crore. MAJOR INITIATIVES IN THE STEEL PSUs The Public Sector Undertakings - Steel Auhority of India Limited (SAIL) and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) are in the midst of ambitious expansion plans. The expansion plans would increase the capacity of SAIL from 14.6 million tonnes of hot metal production per annum to 26 million tonnes by 2010, at an approximate cost of around Rs. 53,000 crore. In the case of RINL, the expansion plan would increase its capacity from the present level of 3 million tonnes of hot metal production per annum to 6.3 million tonnes by 2009-10 at an estimated cost of around Rs. 9,000 crore. 5 Various proposals for merger of PSUs under the administrative control of the Ministry of Steel as well as acquisitions of various companies are underway. Merger of Kudremukh Iron & Steel Company Ltd. (KISCO) with Kudremkuh Iron Ore Company Ltd. (KIOCL) has been completed, while the following are under process : Acquisition and merger of Neelachal Ispat Nigam Ltd. (NINL) by SAIL Acquisition of National Iron & Steel Company Ltd. (NISCO) by SAIL Merger of Maharstra Elektrosmelt Ltd. (MEL) with SAIL Merger of Bharat Refractories Ltd. with SAIL Acquisition of Steel Complex Ltd., Calicut, Kerala by SAIL Merger of Sponge Iron India Ltd. with NMDC Kulti works, which was part of the erstwhile Indian Iron and Steel Company Ltd. (IISCO), has been revived and rechristened as ‘SAIL Growth Works’ in December, 2007 During the year, the PSUs under the Ministry have implemented the Integrity Pacts (IP) - an International best practice from Transparency International, for improving fairness and transparency in procurement and contracts with bidders/ vendors for all major purchases and contracts. 9 PSUs - SAIL, NMDC, MOIL, MSTC, KIOCL, MECON, HSCL, FSNL and BRL signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) with Transparency International, India in September 2007. The MoUs aim at improving the efficacy in implementation of the “Integrity Pact’. RINL had already signed an MoU with Transparency International, India in March, 2007. With the signing of these MoUs, the PSUs under the Ministry of Steel, have been covered under the Integrity Pact. Securing metallurgical coal and Thermal coal assets from overseas - SAIL, RINL, CIL, NTPC and NMDC signed an MoU on 3rd August, 2007 for a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV). The Government have approved this proposal on 8th November, 2007. The SPV has been named as ‘Coal Ventures International (CVI)’. In order to make available steel items to the common man. SAIL and RINL are expanding their distribution networks at a fast pace. SAIL has now 1,564 dealers in place (325-SC, 122-ST, 211- OBC, 906-Gen), covering 603 districts in the country against 653 dealers as on 1st April, 2007. 42% dealers belong to SC/ ST/OBC category. In RINL, 131 district level dealers have been appointed to cater to the requirement of small consumers. Action plan has also been drawn in RINL to cover another 83 districts during 2007-08 and 394 districts during 2008-09.