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Reforms for India’s state steelmakers

November 20, 2009 - 00:00 GMT

Government strategy for India’s state-owned steelmakers and steelmaking raw material suppliers centres on the stronger companies supporting the weaker, reports Kunal Bose.

The Indian public sector continues to have an over-arching presence in steel and steel-related industries, thanks to the country following a decidedly socialist model of growth for the first four decades since Independence in 1947. The government-owned Steel Authority of India Limited and Vizag Steel had a share of over 15.5m tonnes of the country’s steel production of 53.5m tonnes in 2008-09. Similarly, NMDC, another company in the public domain, is India’s largest producer of iron ore, with output last year of 28.52m tonnes. Sail is superseded only by NMDC in the Indian league of ore producers. With production of 24.43m tonnes in 2008-09, Sail could meet the full iron ore requirements of all its mills. To remain self-reliant in ore, Sail will raise production to 42m tonnes by 2012. The government in the meantime has told NMDC to lift its ore production to 50m tonnes by 2015. None of...

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