INCREASE IN PRODUCTION OF STEEL

There has been a significant increase in production of steel during the last few years. The data on production of crude steel in the country during the last five years are as under:

Year	Crude steel production (in million tonnes)
	Quantity	Growth rate over last year (%)
2005-06	46.46	6.96
2006-07	50.81	9.38
2007-08	53.86	5.98
2008-09	58.44	8.50
2009-10*	64.88	11.02
Source: Joint Plant Committee (JPC); * =Provisional

there is no correlation of increase in employment with the increase in production capacity. It is not necessary that the employment should increase at the same ratio with the increase in production due to technological developments, automation, process improvement & best practices and the need to progressively reduce manpower per million tonne of steel production which made it possible to achieve higher production targets with less manpower.

the plant-wise details of crude steel production and manpower in respect of both the existing public sector steel producers are as under:

Steel Authority of India Ltd.(SAIL)

Plant	Production for 2009-10 (Unit:’ 000T)	Manpower as on 1.4.2010
Bhilai Steel Plant	5109	32563
Durgapur Steel Plant	1966	13581
Rourkela Steel Plant	2128	19455
Bokaro Steel Plant	3596	24165
IISCO Steel Plant	400	11608
Alloy Steels Plant	205	1769
Visveswaraya Iron and Steel Plant	103	1649
Source: SAIL

Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd. (RINL)

Year	Production (in million tonnes)	Manpower as on 31st March
2007-2008	3.322	16,416
2008-2009	3.145	17,225
2009-2010	3.399	17,830
Source: RINL

in today’s de-regulated, open market economy, the role of Government is that of a facilitator and in that capacity, it promotes/encourages growth of steel industry through suitable policy measures. Both the existing public sector Steel companies namely SAIL and RINL are in the process of expanding their crude steel capacities thereby creating employment opportunities for unemployed youths. SAIL envisages increasing its crude steel production from existing 12.84 million tonnes to 21.40 million tonnes per annum in Phase-I to be completed by 2012-13 at an approximate estimated cost of Rs. 70,000 crore including cost of mine development. RINL is expanding its existing capacity of 2.9 million tonnes of crude steel production to 6.3 million tonnes per annum to be completed by December, 2011 at an estimated cost of Rs. 12,228 crore.