Steel Research & Technology Mission of India (SRTMI)

•  Ministry of Steel is planning to set up an Industry driven institutional mechanism namely Steel Research & Technology Mission of India (SRTMI), to facilitate joint collaborative research projects in the iron & steel sector in India.

The salient features of SRTMI are as under:

• SRTMI will be an industry driven initiative which will be setup as a registered society wherein Ministry of Steel will be a facilitator as one of the members of the society.
• SRTMI will be governed and administered by a Governing Body comprising the steel CEOs, domain experts and a representative of Ministry of Steel.
• The participating companies shall pay an initial entry fee @ Rs 25/tonne of crude steel produced during 2013-14, or, Rs 5 Cr, whichever is higher, to facilitate the creation of SRTMI.
• Ministry of Steel will also provide part fund to facilitate the creation of SRTMI.
• CEOs of Major Indian Steel Companies, signed a Memorandum of Agreement with Ministry of Steel in the presence of Hon'ble Minister for Steel & Mines on 6th April 2015 for participation and financial contribution in the initiative with an initial corpus of Rs 200 crore. SRTMI has been registered on 14th October 2015

Analysis:

• In 2015-16, India produced 89.776 MT of crude steel and attained the position of 3rd largest steel producer in the world, after China and Japan. However, the Per Capita steel consumption in India is low at around 60 kg as against the world average of around 216 kg. This justifies the need for a rapid increase in capacity and production of steel in the years to come. As per the present projections, it is expected that India will emerge as the 2nd largest steel producer soon. India has accordingly, fixed a target of 300 million tonne production capacity by 2025.
• Post-liberalization, technological profile of the Indian Steel Industry has undergone substantial change. With setting up of new large modern steel plants based on state-of-the-art technologies and modernisation/ expansion of existing steel plants, there is a upward trend in efficiency parameters of operation viz. productivity, energy efficiency, environment friendliness etc. Further, with setting up of Electric Induction Furnaces in the unregulated regime, technology-mix of the Indian Steel Industry has changed to a unique position. About 59% steel is produced through the Electric Furnace route of which about 31% steel is produced through the Electric Induction Furnace (EIF) route and 28% from Electric Arc Furnace (EAF) route. About 41% steel is produced through the conventional integrated route of BF-BOF route as against the world average of around 74%. India is the world’s largest producer of Direct Reduced Iron (DRI) or Sponge Iron. During 2015-16, total production of sponge iron is reported at around 22.40 million tonnes of which 85% are coal based plants and 15% are gas based plants.
• The R&D efforts by the Indian steel companies out of their own corpus have mainly concentrated on improving internal processes related to saving costs and improving efficiency. Process improvements such as beneficiation and pelletization of iron ore have received good response in the industry. Adoption of continuous casting together with thin slab casting as well as dedicated technologies for harnessing waste heat are drawing the attention of the steel companies. These have led to improved productivity and energy efficiency in the Indian steel industries. However, there are certain constraints in raw material quality, particularly high Alumina in Indian iron ore and high ash in Indian coal, which adversely affect the techno economic performance of the whole industry. To address these constrains and also to sustain the projected high growth rate, there is an urgent need for concerted R&D and technology intervention in the iron and steel sector.
• Product development is yet another challenging area being faced by the steel industry in India. While large varieties of value added steel products are now being produced indigenously, the country is dependent on import for several high performance and value added steel products like electrical steel, automotive grade steel and steels for specialized use in defence, space and nuclear applications. The technology in such high-value products is closely held by the companies in the US, Japan & Korea, who do not part with such technologies easily. Not only huge R&D investments to develop such technologies are needed but efforts are also required for technological collaborations with such companies for acquiring high-end technologies possessed by them.

By: Vishal