Steel industry passing through challenging times: Govt

The steel industry in the country is passing through a "challenging" phase on account of low prices coupled with other issues, government said today.
"The steel industry is facing a challenging time due to low steel prices and low profitability, issues related to land acquisition, environmental and forest clearances and availability of finances from banks and financial institutions," Minister of State for Steel and Mines Vishnu Deo Sai told Lok Sabha in a written reply.
The minister said steel is a de-regulated sector and investment decisions to expand the existing steel plants or to set up new steel plants are taken by the individual companies or investors based on commercial considerations, market dynamics and techno-economic viability of projects.

Sai said the production of steel has continued to increase in the last few years and has recorded a percentage growth of 8.9 per cent in 2014-15 over the previous fiscal.
In the last fiscal, steel output was recorded at 88.97 million tonnes (MT) while in this fiscal, from April-October, it has been recorded at 52.44 MT, the minister said.