Question

What are the main problems faced by the iron and steel industry in india?

Answer 1

Hint: Industry is defined as a group of efficient enterprises or institutions that manufacture or supply goods, services, or sources of income. They are mainly categorized as primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary; secondary industries are further classified as heavy and light.

Complete Step by Step Answer:

The Indian steel industry is contemporary with state-of-the-art steel mills. It has always tried for continual modernisation of older plants and up-gradation to higher energy efficiency levels.Indian steel industry is categorized into 3 categories - major producers, main producers and secondary producers.

The major issues faced by Indian Iron and Steel Industry are-
1. Capital:
Iron and steel industry needs large capital investment which a developing country like India cannot afford. Many of the public sector integrated steel plants have been created with the assistance of foreign support.

2. Lack of Technology:
 Material value productivity in India is still very low. In Japan and Korea, less than 1.1 tonnes of crude steel is needed to generate a tonne of saleable steel. In India, the average is still high at 1.2 tonnes. Improvement in the outcome at each stage of output, particularly for value added products will be more significant in the coming years.

3. Low Productivity:
The per capita labour productivity in India is at 90-100 tonnes which is one of the lowest in the world. The labour productivity in Japan, Korea and some other major steel manufacturing countries is about 600-700 tonnes per man per year. Therefore, there is a serious need to improve the productivity which needs retraining and redevelopment of the labour force.

4. Inefficiency of public sector units:
Most of the public sector units are afflicted by inefficiency influenced by heavy investment on social expenditures, poor labour relations, inefficient supervision, underutilisation of capacity, etc. This hinders adequate functioning of the steel plants and results in heavy losses.

5. Heavy demand:
Even at a low per capita consumption rate, demand for iron and steel is progressing with each passing day and large amounts of iron and steel are to be imported for meeting the needs. Production has to be improved to save precious foreign exchange.

Note: The iron and steel industries are among the most vital industries in India. During 2014 - 2016, India was the third largest manufacturer of raw steel . In 2019 India became the 2nd largest steel producer in the world after China.