The domestic steel consumption is expected to touch the 160-million tonne (MT) mark by the financial year 2024-25, Union Steel Minister Ram Chandra Prasad Singh said on Monday.

       He said this while chairing a meeting of the Consultative Committee of the Members of Parliament for the Ministry of Steel, held at the Narmada district of Gujarat, the ministry said in a statement.

       During the financial year 2020-21, the total finished steel consumption in the country was at 96.2 MT, and the same is expected to reach about 160 MT by 2024-25, and about 250 MT by 2030-31, the minister said.

       "The government is continuously making efforts to enhance the steel production capacity and increase its demand and usage of steel.

       "The government's recently announced Gati Shakti Master Plan will complement the Rs 100-lakh crore investment plan for infrastructure development in the next five years. It will further give a boost to the steel usage in the country," Singh said.

       He added that steel has been playing an important role in the country's industrial development, as it is the key input for critical sectors such as infrastructure, construction, engineering and packaging, automobile and defence.

       Parliamentarians Janardan Singh Sigriwal, Bidyut Baran Mahato, Satish Chandra Dubey, Akhilesh Prasad Singh and Chandra Prakash Choudhary, along with other senior ministry officials, attended the meeting, the ministry statement said.

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