February 25: The two-day Indian Steel Markets Conference organised by mjunction services limited, India’s largest B2B e-commerce company, got off to a virtual start today. The theme of the conference is: “Indian Steel: Realigning to New Normal”. The knowledge partners of the event are Steel Insights and India Steel Markets Watch.
Delivering the welcome address, mjunction MD Mr Vinaya Varma said, “The Indian steel industry has seen a period of transformation and innovation as it awaits the end of the pandemic. As the industry adapted to the new normal, it has seen significant recovery in production, demand and prices in the last quarter, aided by some timely policy interventions and some more in the pipeline. Over the next two days, our esteemed speakers across the industry spectrum will discuss and share their views and insights into some pertinent questions that arise in the wake of this change sweeping the industry.”
Speaking at the inaugural session on Steel Scenario & Demand Dynamics, Dr Bhaskar Chatterjee, Secretary General, Indian Steel Association, said: “There exists a very high demand potential for value-added steel in India to reduce dependence on Imports. Interestingly, India is the second largest steel producer in the world, but our dependence on special steel Imports is still high. While large varieties of value-added steel products are now being produced, the country is still dependent on import of several high performance and value added products such as electrical steel, automotive grade steel and steel for specialized use in defense space and nuclear applications.”
Mr Sharad Mahendra, Chief Executive Officer, JSW Steel Coated Products Ltd, said: “Published data shows that almost 3.4% of the global GDP is lost due to corrosion which in value terms is almost $3 trillion. This is significant loss in terms of value where coated steel plays an extremely important role.”
Mr Vijay Sharma, Director, Jindal Stainless, said: “Certain decisions have opened the floodgates for stainless steel material to come in from China and Indonesia. This is a challenge.”
According to Mr Ranjan Bandyopadhyay, Executive Secretary, Joint Plant Committee, Ministry of Steel, “This year we may end up with finished steel production of 93-94 million tons with crude steel crossing 100 million tons. Consumption would be around 91 million tons. The decline would be a maximum of 10% decline compared with previous year.”
The speakers over the rest of the sessions include some eminent industry experts such as Mr Satyen Shah, AVP, Sales & Marketing, JSW Steel, Mr Ajay K Misra, Chief of Marketing, Industrial Products & Projects, Tata Steel, Mr Akshaya Gujral, Chief of Sales, AM&NS, Mr Sanjay Mehta, President, MRAI, Mr Yogesh Bedi, Chief, Steel Recycling Business, Tata Steel, Mr Sumit Issar, Managing Director, Mahindra Intertrade Ltd (MIL) & Mahindra Steel Service Centre (MSSCL), Mr K K Pahuja, President, ISSDA, Mr Oscar Tarneberg, Vice President, Metals, Argus Media, Mr Sridhar Krishnamoorthy, Managing Director, Arjas Steel, Mr Kapil Dev, Executive Vice President, NCDEX, Dr Mukesh Kumar, Director, Steel Research & Technology Mission of India (SRTMI), Mr Sanat Bhaumik, Director (Sales & Marketing), Steel Plantech, Mr Ramakrishna Chinnamsetty, Head – Mining, AM&NS, Mr Somesh Biswas, Chief, Raw Material Strategy, Tata Steel, and Mr Deependra Kashiva, Executive Director, Sponge Iron Manufacturers Association.
