City to host International conference on pelletization

KOLKATA: Top steelmaking companies, senior government offi cials and the captains of steel industry from both India and abroad will participate in an international conference on pelletization and discuss the future of Indian steel making industry here on March 26. The day-long meet, called ‘Iron Ore Pellets Conference 2012’, has assumed a special signifi cance in the wake of the government providing a slew of incentives to pellet making technology to overcome the shortage of high grade iron ores for the steel industry. The meeting would also deliberate on issues like the National Steel Policy, demand-supply scenario of India’s pellet industry, policy outlook for the iron and steel industry and advantages of pellets for the purpose of meeting the domestic and export demand, industry sources here today said. The event is being jointly organised by a host of organisations, including Union Steel Ministry’s Economic Research Unit, Sponge Iron Manufacturers Association (SIMA), National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) and Steel Scenario,a leading journal of the iron and steel industry besides Ore Team, a leading global research house in the sector. Among the leading steel makers attenting the Conference are Tata Steel, Siemens, Metso, SAIL, Essar, Jindal Steel and Power, Outotec India Ltd, Pisces Exim, Synergy Resources HK Ltd, MSPL,Vale, Rio Tinto, Jingsu Hongda and CRISIL India. Large delegations from China,Brazil,Japan, Mexico and Germany are also expected to attend the conference which would be inaugurated by Mr ACR Das, Industrial Advisor, Union Ministry Of Steel. Incidentally, India’s iron ore pellet production capacity is targeted to reach 80 million tonnes by 2015 from the current 35 million tonnes and is mostly being used for captive consumption. The country’s crude steel capacity is projected to reach 110- 150 MTPA by 2020 and it would require 250 million tonnes of iron ore to achieve that target. In the Union Budget for 2012-13,the government had announced reduction in customs duty on iron ore equipment from 7.5 per cent to 2.5 per cent. This is likely to spur Indian participants to go for pelletization of iron ore fi nds in a big way, the sources pointed out.