On the sidelines of IETF, Roundtable on Steel "Building world-class efficiencies in production and logistics" was organized by CII on 15 February 2013 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. Addressing this roundtable, Mr A C R Das, Industrial Adviser, Ministry of Steel, expressed optimism that a vibrant future lies ahead for Indian steel industry. Investment of 1 trillion dollar in infrastructure as envisaged in five year plan ensures that steel consumption is bound to grow in future. In his opinion, India possesses advantage in terms of having almost all the technologies of steelmaking such as Induction Furnaces, Direct Reduced Iron (DRl) - Induction Melting Furnaces (large capacity), Continuous Casting of Billets or Rolling Mills. He suggested adoption of energy efficient and environment friendly technologies. Besides, he invited industry stakeholders to provide comments for draft National Steel Policy.

Mr V R Sharma, Dy. MD & CEO-Steel Business, Jindal Steel & Power Limited, said that though India is the 4th largest steel manufacturer in the world, we need to address barriers related to infrastructure and land clearances.

Dr Sanak Mishra, Vice President, Arcelor Mittal India Ltd., mentioned that 23% of steel produced in India is exported which makes this country a significant player in global arena. For further accelerating the growth of Indian steel sector, some of the priorities suggested by him are - greater government role and leadership; intensive cooperation between centre and states; development of ports, railways and highways; brownfield expansion ; providing iron ore security through preferential consideration in allotment/auction; and setting up larger number of vocational training schools.

Mr Mohamed Chaabet, Head-Steel Division, ABP Induction Systems Ltd., made a detailed presentation on making of steel through Induction and furnaces and shared practices adopted by ABP Induction Systems Ltd.

Emphasizing upon achieving world class efficiencies using Automation and IT, Mr T S Suresh, Director (Projects), SAIL, said that opportunity areas in steel sector is on account of cyclical nature of steel industry and per capita consumption.

According to Mr Prabhat Kumar, Vice President (Technical Excellence), JSW Steel Limited, focus areas in steel sector are Automation and IT; value addition and new product development; quality and certification; capacity utilization; technology development; and raw material linkage.