A STUDY OF IRON AND STEEL SECTOR IN INDIA

ABSTRACT The iron and steel manufacturing sector is one of the largest sectors in the world in terms of financial volume of trade, employment potential, development of ancillary and allied industries and geographical spread. Added to this is the fact that iron and steel is used as an input in almost all the industrial and manufacturing sectors and goods produced by them. As a result this sector attracts the maximum attention of almost all the countries of the world, whether being one of the manufacturers and suppliers or not. This is because the universality and increased percentage of usage has created conditions for present and future demand for this commodity, part of which is due to the beneficial results of opening up of the global economy due to the influence of WTO. This demand has created immense opportunities for steel manufacturing countries as well as global steel manufacturing countries, both of whom are charting out aggressive policies and strategies to gain the maximum advantage from this situation. As part of their strategies the global steel manufacturing companies are scouting for opportunities worldwide where they can set up their operations that would reap the maximum benefit in terms of profit and market share. At the same time the steel manufacturing countries are also trying to attract the global steel companies to set up operations in their country by which they would benefit from increased business, production capacity and transfer of latest technology.In line with this environment it is found that India as a manufacturer of iron and steel is attracting the attention of global steel manufacturers, who have already made plans for setting up manufacturing units in the country, some of them like POSCO, Arcelor Mittalalready on the process of implementing their plans. The reasons behind the attractiveness of India as a destination for manufacture of iron and steel is the latent demand existing in the country, availability of huge quantities of iron ore, other raw materials and factors of production, its rich legacy as a premier centre for production of iron and steel and its geographical position from where global steel companies can reach out to other markets of the world. These reasons have been largely influenced by the general climate of optimism and global demand for steel. Along with all these reasons the proactive policy of the Government of India for the overall development of the steel industry has contributed to a large measure in instilling confidence amongst global steel companies and investors to invest and set up operations in this sector in India