Integrate aluminium industry with solar energy,
A committee consisting of Additional Secretary in the Coal Ministry was trying to work out how to enhance the usage of domestic coal and reduce imports.
This was disclosed by Rasika Chaube, Steel Ministry’s Additional Secretary, who pointed out that India imports 45 million tons of coal from Australia alone out of the 58 million tons required every year.
Coal India, she said, has a surplus which they can give to the DRI units, but because the stakeholders have already entered in import commitments for importing, they are unable to use this facility even when its being offered.
“We have, therefore, requested the Ministry of Coal if their CPSEs can assure us of a consistent supply over a period of time, then our stakeholders will not enter into agreements of import,” said Chaube.
Addressing a webinar ‘Mapping Coal Matrix for Indian Metals Industry: Availability, Joint Auction & Embracing Technology’ organised by FICCI on 30 July 2020, she also wants the coal cess issue addressed, making it easy for the domestic stakeholders.
Dr V K Saraswat, a NITI Aayog member, stressed on the steel sector to build an effective mechanism which will be a key to facilitate capacity addition and have reduced import dependence of coal.
“This is the right time to channelize our efforts to reducing bills attributing to coking coal imports,” he said.
Dr Saraswat said that the focus of the NITI Aayog along with the Coal Ministry was on promoting gasification.
“If and when the requirement comes, we will be able to divert the gasified coal output to the Direct reduced iron (#DRI) industry in a big way. The govt will soon come up with a roadmap for production of methanol from coal to promote clean energy in India,” he said.
Speaking on the recent initiative of joint auctioning of coal and bauxite mines, Dr Saraswat said that with the private investors coming in, and taking coal to the auction process and mining it will help provide coal at market price.
He also suggested that if the entire sector is brought under GST, the number of levies and cesses, which dictate the price of the coal, will also be controlled.
Regarding the aluminium industry, Dr Saraswat was of the view that if the aluminium industry has to be competitive, all disability factors have to be removed.
“I request the aluminium industry to also integrate solar energy, which could help overcome the cost disadvantage. We also now need to identify aluminium as one of the sectors that will contribute significantly to Atmanirbhar Bharat,” he added.
Peeyush Kumar of Coal Ministry said that the ministry will ensure that there are linkages that can be provided to the DRI units so that the dependence on imports reduces significantly. “We assure the industry that we are there to support you with whatever help is required,” he added.
V R Sharma, Co-Chair Steel Committee and MD, Jindal Steel & Power Ltd, added, “India is making a fundamental shift to unleash the coal sector. The cost of coal must reduce further and be the same throughout the country.”
Basudav Mishra, Executive Director (CIG), @SAIL, Himanshu Singh, Head Coal Strategy, @Vedanta Ltd, Alok Chandra, Economic Advisor, Ministry of Mines, Dr Mukesh Kumar, Director, SRTMI (under the aegis of Ministry of Steel), A K Rana, Director (T/P&D), CMPDI, Vartika Shukla, ED, Engineers India, Shubham Goel, VP, #SBI Caps, Gaurav Verma, DGM & Branch Head, M N Dastur & Co Pvt Ltd, R R Sonde, CTO & Executive Vice President, #Thermax Ltd, put forth their perspectives. #coal #steel #iron /fiinews.com
