Expressing concern over depleting mines reserves in the country, Minister of Steel Ram Vilas Paswan today said the Indian government is looking out for overseas acquisition of mines.
"In many places across India, the mine reserves are fast running out and only four to five years of reserves are left in Dalli-Rajharah, Chhattisgarh," the minister said.
He said overseas acquisition of mines will not be loss-making ventures pointed out: "We are even prepared to go for joint ventures."
India's overall consumption of cooking coal is around 16 MT tonnes annually.
Domestic production of cooking coal is around 3 MT tonnes and the country imports around 12.5 MT tonnes of cooking coal to augment its overall production.
Highlighting his ministry's achievements, Paswan said the government is ready for any challenges and the state-owned public sector companies are also gearing up to meet any challenges.
The per capita steel consumption in India is around 35 kg. However the international per capita consumption of steel is around 150 kg.
The government has targeted around 80 MT of steel production by 2010.
The Steel Authority of India has undertaken massive modernisation programme and estimated Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 400 billion) will be required for its completion.
Paswan said "after the recession in the steel sector for three years, the sector is beginning to emerge again ''and admitted competition from private sector has put pressure on Steel Authority of India.
He said India is now the 7th largest crude steel producing country in the world, as per the yearly benchmarking surveys conducted by the International Iron and Steel Institute (IISI), an improvement over India's international ranking of 9th position in 2004.
Paswan noted that in the last three years the production as well as the growth rates of finished steel has touched double-digit figures. The production and consumption figures for 2006-07 are up by 31 per cent and 41 per cent as compared to that of 2003.