Steel industry may grow by 120 million tonnes by 2012, says Virbhadra Singh

NEW DELHI - Union Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh has said that the country’s steel industry would grow by 120 million tonnes by the end of 2012.

Speaking at an industrial event of Fidiration Internationale Des Inginieurs-Conseils (FIDIC) here today, the Minister said: Today, we are producing about 72.76 million tones of steel, which places us in first top five countries. However, it is only deepening a growth and we have to achieve a lot more and I am quite hopeful that by the end of 2012 we will be able to produce 120 million tonnes of steel in the country.”

He also informed that the steel consumption of the country also witnessed a growth of over 9 percent during April to August this year.

“The country’s steel consumption grew by 13 percent last year and this year during April to August, the finished steel consumption went up by about 9.4 percent,” said Singh. (ANI)