Page 10 - Steel Tech India eMagazine Volume January 2021

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Editorial

A very happy and safe New Year to all of our Readers, Authors, Subscribers, Advertisers
& other Stakeholders.
The year 2020 was a nightmare from March onwardswith a lot of learning as well. Although
the global economy is growing again after a contraction of 4.3 % in 2020, the pandemic has
caused a heavy toll of deaths and illness, plunged millions into poverty, and may depress
economic activities for a prolonged period. Though pandemic scare is still very much there
in many countries including developed ones, we in India are much better off with low death
rates on account of proper planning and handling of the situation. However, there is no
reason for being complacent as the situation may again turn grave looking at the trends
ofdeveloped countries. We must remain vigilant.
The economy has suffered badly last year and will take afew years to comebackto the normal GDP growth. It got
severely affected from march-end to June due to lockdown. Things started improving since then and in Q3, the
production level in industrial sector especially in steel has recovered to the pre-COVID level and in some cases
surpassed. As India has the rare honour of developing good qualityCOVID-19 vaccine, mood is very positive and
things are set to be brighter in 2021. India, with motto of AtmaNirbhar Bharat, to achieve the target of 5 Trillion $
economy by 2025 transitions into an economic powerhouse. The steel demand is forecasted to grow at compound
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of 111 Trillion INR in infrastructure during FY20-25 by GoI through National Infrastructure Pipeline initiative.
ThisUnion Budget 2021 puts the economy on turbo charge for recovery and growth with increased spending on
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emphasis on transparency.

Due to unprecedented high demand of steel and consequently for iron ore in China, the prices of both steel and
iron ore have soared notbeing seen since 2011. To help MSME and other steel user industry, the custom duty has
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already sign of placement of orders from them to technology providers and equipment suppliers for modernisation
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The Union cabinet has recently approved reforms in mining to do away with the distinction between captive and
non-captive mines and allowing transfer of mining leases.A comprehensive licence for exploration and production,
clarity in illegal mining, national mineral index and joint auctions of bauxite and coal mines for the aluminium sector
are some of the other proposals that have been approved by the cabinet. This will have far reaching consequences
for many but production from mines are expectedto go up substantially.
To adhere to the promises made at Paris on climate change, most of the countries, especially in Europe are
working all out to move from fossil fuel to carbon free emission route for iron & steelmaking. CCS (Carbon Capture
and Sequestration)is not the long term solution and use ofHydrogen seems to be the only answer for becoming
carbon neutral. Whereas blue hydrogen is relatively costly comparable, green hydrogen from renewable and
nuclear source are being explored as option but will call for high capex and raise cost of production of steel by 25-
30% from the current level. It is hoped thatcost will come down further with more research and development over
time. It seems the days ofconventionalBF-BOF route and use of fossilfuels are numbered though not very soonand
direct smelting & EAF route will be predominant in future steel plants.
Our January’21 issue is focused on green steelmaking and some valuable papers are included to look into the
present status and the journey for hydrogen steelmaking to follow sustainable route and achieve carbon neutral
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issueinteresting and enriching. We welcome their suggestions which will be of immense valueto us for our future
issues and also to dwell further on the subject.
Happy Reading.
Pritish K. Sen

8 STEEL TECH