CEO Meet on Business Growth & Trade for Secondary Steelmakers held on 15 jul’22 at 10 a.m @The Park Hotel, Kolkata
Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce & Industry and Steel Scenario Journal jointly hosted a CEO Meet on Business Growth in Trade for Secondary Steelmakers on 15 jul’22 at Kolkata.
While welcoming the guests, Shri Rishabh C. Kothari, President, MCCI said that MCCI would like to request the Government to set up a core committee with representation from all stakeholders to identify issues to be resolved for West Bengal to become the largest steel manufacturing hub in the country. He requested the State Government to set up Ministry of Steel in the State to achieve this objective.
Shri Samrat Rahi, Dy. Chairman, Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, Kolkata while addressing as Guest of Honour said that Government of India is keen to increase steel production in India, specially in the East. 80% of iron ore and 100% of coking coal is in the East. There is a dedicated berth for transporting steel at Haldia Port, he mentioned.
Shri Rahi further mentioned that Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port has introduced Floating Crane Facilities and also Night Navigation Facilities are being created. These initiatives are important as Kolkata is a riverine port with draught issues.
Shri Ranjan Bandopadhyay, Executive Secretary, Joint Plant Committee, Ministry of Steel, Government of India said that there is an urgent need to create a policy for secondary steel sector. He further mentioned that JPC is the official data provider in steel sector for India to global agencies.
Shri Sameer Patil, Chief Business Officer, BSE said that BSE is the oldest and largest stock exchange in Asia. There are 375 MSMEs already listed in BSE among which 120 MSMEs are listed in the BSE main board.
He highlighted that one can hedge against price volatility in steel contracts. BSE is the platform provider for price discovery.
The Inaugural Session was concluded with the Vote of Thanks proposed by Smt. Sakuntala Chanda, Editor & Publisher, Steel Scenario Journal.
The inaugural session was followed by two Technical Sessions; Securing Raw Material and Skilled Workers and Green Steel Technology & Business Growth through Trade.
Speakers at these two technical sessions elaborated on the opportunities and challenges in Secondary Steel in areas like skill and development, green technology and trading.
While addressing in the plenary session, Shri Deepak Kumar Agarwal, CMD, Shakambari Group of Industries and Chairman, MCCI Council on Steel pointed out some challenges that the Secondary Steel Sector has been witnessing. The Secondary Steel Sector in India has faced difficulties with regards to availability of coal due to coal shortage and non-availability of rakes which have been creating challenges for importing coal from other countries for manufacturing of secondary steel.
He also mentioned other challenges like land scarcity and high-power tariff, especially in eastern India.
Shri Vivek Adhukia, President, SRMA and Co-Chairman, MCCI Council on Steel in his address mentioned that the Government of India has restricted the import of raw materials from China. This will boost usage of domestic raw materials by MSMEs.
Shri Adhukia suggested that industry associations request the Central Government to help in supplying adequate units of coal to sponge iron industries in West Bengal. He further highlighted that high tariff rate creates problems for the sponge iron industry and current cargo charges are leading to high logistic cost in sponge iron industry.
The Plenary Sessions ended with a brief Open House discussion with the present dignitaries.
Source: MCCI Release
