Conclusion

India is amongst a few countries in the world having the dual advantage of fast-growing
domestic demand coupled with access to raw materials. Further, the trend that is already
discernible is that the axis of global steel production / consumption is shifting towards Asia. With
their large populations, China and India already account for 35 % of the total world steel
production - more than double of Europe. Asia is expected to outpace other regions of the world
to an even greater extent in the coming years.
Amongst the Asian nations, China has established a huge, unbridgeable lead. Itis accepted that
China will continue to be the leader. However, India is slated to emerge as the second Asian giant
in the next eight years. Figuratively speaking, while the "Dragon" has reached maturity; the
"Lotus" is about to bloom in resplendent plendour. In 2005 Chinese steel consumption was
around 320 million tons; i.e China swallowed almost 32% of global steel. It is unlikely that
future production and consumption would continue to flourish at growth rates of 8% and 18%
respectively as has been the case over the last few years. On the other hand, it is sun-rise time for
India where the demand has increased by 7-8% in the last couple of years. In the long run, Indian
steel is likely to be more cost-effective since unlike China, India has relatively large reserves of
iron ore (14 billion tones), which if strategically exploited, can sustain domestic production of
120-130 million tones for at least 25-30 years

Finding

The NMDC

(National

Mineral

Development

Corporation)

Limited is

a state-

controlled mineral producer of the Government of India. It is owned by the Government of India
and is under administrative control of the Ministry of Steel.
The Indian steel industry responded enthusiastically to the liberalization and large capacities
were created in the private sector. The plants which came up post1991, like Vizag Steel (RINL)
in the public sector and Essar Steels, Ispat Steels, JindalVijayanagar etc. in the private sector
used the modern state-of-the-art technologies. However, because of decontrol, removal of duty
protection, free import, dumping from China and CIS, and, above all, a global economic meltdown in the latter half of 90s,the industry went through a major crisis. The period from 19972001 marked the worst for the industry with price decline, poor capacity utilization, inventory
pile up, dumping through unofficial channels and high interest burden.
Meanwhile, the industry is already into an expansion mode with all steel majors like SAIL, Tata
Steels, RINL, Ispat, Jindals and Essar hiking their capacities. States like Orissa and Jharkhand,
rich in iron ore, are attracting major investment interest both from domestic and international
majors. There is, however, some concern regarding the differential treatment meted out to
overseas players to attract investment, mainly in respect of export of iron ore. In the final
analysis, the industry scenario is expected to radically alter in the coming years.
NMDC Ltd. is also diversifying into other raw materials for steel industry like low silica
limestone. Production of Dead Burnt magnetite and further value addition is under study through
its subsidiary J K Mineral Development Corporation Limited.

NMDC Ltd. has taken over a Silica Sand mining and beneficiation project from Uttar Pradesh
State Mineral Development Corporation Ltd., The plant has been designed to produce high purity
beneficiated silica sand of around 300,000 tones per year which is a raw material for production
of float/sheet glass.
With a view to capture the opportunities now available following the NAVARATNA recognition
and its expertise in the field of mineral exploration and mining, NMDC is venturing into
development of high value minerals like gold, diamond etc., as joint ventures in some of the
African countries.
A memorandum of understanding has been signed between NMDC, Indian Rare Earths Limited,
(IRE) and Andhra Pradesh Mineral Development Corporation to establish a joint venture for the
development of Bheemunipatnam Beach Sand. The project envisages mining of beach sands,
setting up of mineral separation plant for Limonite concentrate and a downstream value addition
plant for conversion of Limonite into synthetic Rutile/TiO2 slag/TiO2 pigment with pig iron as
by-product. National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) is setting up a 3 MTPA
capacity greenfield Integrated Steel Plant in Nagarnar, located 16 km from Jagdalpur, with an
estimated outlay of Rs 18,000 crore. The land for the plant has already been acquired as of
August 2010 and, as of February 2012, 9 major packages and certain auxiliaries packages of the
steel plant have already been awarded to internationally acclaimed companies at a cost of around
Rs.11,000 crore.