Govt proposes quality control order for addl 19 steel products

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The government has proposed to issue quality control orders for three stainless steel products and 15 non-alloy steel products, which have a direct bearing on human health, Parliament was informed today.
So far, the government has notified 15 steel products under two steel quality control orders, Minister of State for Steel Vishnu Deo Sai said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.
"Further, the government has proposed to notify two more quality control orders covering additional 16 non-alloy steel products and three stainless steel products, respectively," he added.
Explaining the rationale behind the norms, Sai said the government proposes to notify several steel products having direct bearing on human health and critical to housing, construction and infrastructure sectors.

These orders are under the mandatory Certification Marks Scheme of Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) which warrants that all the notified products must conform to the relevant Indian Standards, the Minister said.
"This inter-alia would regulate production, sales, distribution and import of sub-standard steel products. The proposed steel quality control order also provides that there will be appropriate authorities for effective enforcement of the order," he said.

In India, steel is produced by integrated steel plants and a large number of mini steel plants adopting electric arc furnaces and electric induction furnaces, Sai added.
As per the Joint Plant Committee (JPC) data, there are 11 integrated steel plants, 42 electric arc furnaces (EAF) based mini steel plants, 1,247 electric induction furnaces (EIF) based mini steel plants and 1,630 re-rolling mills, the Minister informed the House.

So far, BIS has granted 2,357 licenses to manufacturers of various steel products for use of the BIS standard mark. Details of manufacturers who have not applied to BIS for licenses are not available with BIS, Sai said.