New Delhi: Steel Minister Ram Chandra Prasad Singh on Tuesday directed steel PSUs to prepare a road map for cost reduction through improvement in the parameters affecting the cost of production in the next six months. In a review meeting held with steel PSUs on Monday, the Minister was informed that coking coal, which is mostly imported, is the biggest cost element.

Singh has urged the PSUs to focus on the important cost-cutting measures such as reduction in the coke rate, increase pulverised coal injection (PCI) and increase the use of pellets to reduce the consumption of coking coal and minimise the cost of production. It was also directed that these techno-economic parameters would be monitored on a monthly basis through the steel dashboard.

“The various parameters affecting the efficiency and productivity of the steel plants namely, blast furnace productivity, BF coke rate, labour productivity, specific energy consumption, CO2 emission intensity, water consumption, etc. were reviewed to reduce the cost of production, improve the energy efficiency, reduce greenhouse gases (GHG) emissions and minimise the water consumption,” an official release said.

Meanwhile, measures being taken to increase efficiency and productivity and reduce the cost of production of the steel plants and mines as per the Indian and global benchmarks and action plans to achieve the same were also discussed.

In addition, the Minister also reviewed their marketing strategies and future plans. He reviewed the marketing and sales strategies adopted by the companies including its roadmap in the context of future expansion plans.

“The Minister directed the Steel CPSEs to have a system in place for real-time assessment of the changes in the demand, supply, pricing trends, degree of competition, etc. for their various products for arriving at the best-suited marketing strategies. He suggested for aggressive marketing of their products,” the release added.