India signs $5-bn pacts for capital goods manufacturing

Thirty-eight pacts worth $5 billion were signed among 20 technology providers, capital goods manufacturers and steel producers, which will give impetus to the manufacturing of capital goods for the iron and steel industry. Of the 20 companies that exchanged the MoUs on Tuesday, about 12 are foreign players. The MoUs were signed at a conclave on Capital Goods for Steel Sector: Manufacture in India, organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) jointly with MECON and Steel Ministry. Some of the companies that signed the pacts were China-based ACRE, Italy-based CSM, Luxembourg- headquartered Paul Wurth, Danieli Corus — supplier of tailor-made solutions for the primary metals industry — and domestic steel makers and heavy equipment manufacturers, including SAIL, JSW, Bharat Heavy Electricals, MECON, Heavy Engineering Corporation .

The pacts were signed for coke oven, agglomeration, blast furnaces, steel making, rolling mills, waste to energy and iron ore crusher. India has set a target to increase its crude steel capacity to 300 million tonnes by 2030-31 from about 134 million tonnes at present. For adding the new capacity, the Indian steel industry is expected to invest $128 billion in next 10-12 years. For this, India will have to import a large number of critical plants and equipment to meet the needs of domestic steel industry by 2031.