India ready to join OECD steel panel

India today made it clear that it is ready to join OECD's steel committee provided no additional conditions are imposed "over and above" the obligations under the World Trade Organisation.

"We have received an invitation to join the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development's (OECD) steel committee. We are ready provided no conditions are imposed over and above the obligations under the WTO," Steel Ministry Secretary Raghav Sharan Pandey told PTI.

"Once they agree to this, we have no problems in joining the committee."

With its 30 members and observers, including India, China and Russia, the committee accounts for around 65 per cent of world steel production and 80 per cent of global steel exports. China, which has also been invited to join the committee, is considering the same, while Russia is understood to be willing to join.

"Though currently we have the observer status, in view of our massive-capacity expansion plans, we are slated to become the world's second biggest steel producing nation in the next few years. So, OECD wants us to be a part of the committee," Pandey said.

"We are surging towards achieving steel production of 124 million tonnes (mt) by 2011-12. Even if we achieve 90 per cent capacity utilisation, it will be 110 mt." In India, production figures have been revised upwards, making the country the fifth largest producer in the world last year. "Indian production continued to increase rapidly this year, driven by strong demand," Risaburo Nezu, the committee's chairman, observed in Paris earlier this month.

Nezu said consumption in India was also growing at a double-digit pace, though it is yet to catch up with the global average.

Over the years, OECD has emerged as a unique platform where multilateral steel problems are discussed and political solutions to these problems found.

However, China continues to drive world production development. In the first 10 months of 2007, Chinese steel production reached 409 mt, up 18.1 per cent from a year earlier, growing faster than domestic demand. This brings its share of world production to 37 per cent, up from 34 per cent in 2006, Nezu said.

The BRIC economies - Brazil, Russia, India and China - are leading the growth of world demand.

"Crude steel production is on track to grow by around 98 mt in 2007, or 8 per cent, to reach a level of around 1,330 mt. Weaker growth in North America and EU is being offset by rapid production expansion in emerging economies," he pointed out.

"EU is registering a slowdown in production this year as imports account for an increasing share of domestic demand. Solid growth is still being observed in Germany, while output levels have either stagnated or fallen in Italy and France," he had said.

"In the CIS countries, growth in steel making activity is maintaining momentum, led by Russia and Ukraine. In Russia, the booming oil and gas industry and growth in household income continues to stimulate demand for steel," Nezu said.