Odisha bets on Speciality Steel to join Advanced Steel Making Countries Like Japan and South Korea

Bhubaneswar: Principal Secretary, Industries Department of Government of Odisha, Shri Hemant Sharma, IAS today emphasised that the newly inducted Product Linked Incentive (PLI) scheme on Speciality Steel will improve the production capacity to 60 MTPA from 18 MTPA and invited various steel companies to set up their units in Odisha to produce Speciality Steel.

Speaking at the webinar on “Production Linked Incentive (PLI) Scheme for Speciality Steel Industry of Odisha” jointly organised by industry body FICCI and IPICOL, Principal Secretary, Industries Department highlighted the strategic importance of Odisha for the steelmakers such as the abundance of mineral and human resources, high quality industrial and logistic infrastructure, advanced policy framework and most importantly the stable governance.

The Union Cabinet has approved a ₹6,322 crore production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for speciality steel that is expected to attract investments of around ₹40,000 crores and Odisha being a leader in the steel sector will further extend the necessary help to the downstream industries to multifold the production.

In the webinar attended by the leading steelmakers across India, MD IPICOL, Shri Bhupendra Singh Poonia, IAS said that we are doing reforms and taking proper measures to make the state more industry-friendly and has also invited all the companies to visit and explore the investment opportunities in Odisha.

A presentation on the PLI scheme and the advantages of Odisha for the downstream industry was also given to the potential investors.

Industry leaders and senior officials from the Governement of India and Odisha including Shri V R Sharma, MD, JSPL, Dr. Mukesh Kumar, Director, SRTMI, Shri Kalyan Mohanty, CGM, IPICOL, Shri N Gowri Sankara Rao, Director (Finance), MIDHANI Ltd. Shri Navnath Laxman Vhatte, CEO & Director, ESL Steel, Dr. Anil Dhawan, ED, Alloy Steel Producers Association, Shri Tirthankar Banerjee, Secretary, Steel Wire Manufacturers Association of India, Shri Sanjay Jayram, Executive Vice-President (Sales & Marketing), JSW Steel Ltd., Shri Pankaj Satija, Chief Regulatory Affairs, Tata Steel Ltd. were also present at the virtual webinar.

Odisha has been consistently adding steel manufacturing capacity, which has gone up from 2 MT in the year 2000 to 20 MT in the year 2020. Several steel and downstream industries are already in various stages of implementation. With the new opportunities in the downstream sector, the state will soon achieve Hon’ble Chief MInister’s Vision 2030 of making Odisha, the “Steel Hub of India”