New Delhi: India is preparing a new National Steel Policy that proposes increasing the country's steelmaking capacity to more than 600 million tonnes by 2047, Steel Secretary Sandeep Poundrik said.
The draft policy is expected to be placed in the public domain for stakeholder consultation in about a week. The proposed target would represent a major expansion from India's current crude steel capacity of about 223 million tonnes.
The new policy is being prepared to provide a long term framework for the steel industry through 2047. It is expected to provide a new framework beyond the National Steel Policy of 2017, which set a target of 300 million tonnes of crude steel capacity by 2030 to 2031.
India had previously referred to an ambition of reaching 500 million tonnes of steelmaking capacity by 2047. The new draft therefore proposes a higher capacity level of more than 600 million tonnes.
The proposed policy also envisages steel consumption of more than 500 million tonnes by 2047. The higher capacity target reflects expectations of continued growth in domestic demand as well as India's ambitions to expand its steel industry.
The plans come as India's steel industry faces strong domestic demand as well as growing competition from overseas suppliers. Government data shows that India produced about 70.3 million tonnes of crude steel between April and August 2026, an increase of 1.8 percent from the same period a year earlier.
Finished steel production during the period was about 68.1 million tonnes, while finished steel consumption reached around 70.3 million tonnes, an increase of 7 percent.
At the same time, India became a net importer of finished steel by volume during the first five months of the current financial year. Finished steel imports reached about 3.49 million tonnes, an increase of 29.5 percent from a year earlier. Exports stood at about 2.99 million tonnes, up 34.1 percent.
China was the largest supplier of India's finished steel imports during the period, accounting for about 31.8 percent of total imports.
The proposed steel policy is also expected to focus on securing the raw materials needed for a much larger industry. The draft projects that India could require about 772 million tonnes of iron ore and 214 million tonnes of coking coal by 2047.
The government is considering overseas mineral assets and joint ventures as part of efforts to strengthen access to these resources. Coking coal is particularly important for India's steel industry, which has historically depended heavily on imports.
Another major part of the proposed policy is the reduction of carbon emissions from steel production. The draft aims to reduce the industry's average carbon intensity from about 2.54 tonnes of carbon dioxide per tonne of crude steel to about 1.54 tonnes by 2047.
The target comes as India seeks to expand steel production while also reducing the environmental impact of the industry. Steel is one of the country's major industrial sectors and is widely used in construction, infrastructure, transport and manufacturing.
India has already introduced measures to encourage greener steel production. The Ministry of Steel has been working on the Green Steel Initiative, which includes measures related to energy efficiency, renewable energy, green hydrogen and other technologies aimed at reducing emissions.
The draft is also expected to support smaller steel producers in reducing their carbon emissions, including through a proposed scheme worth Rs 5,000 crore.
The draft is also expected to address concerns over cheap or substandard steel imports, including through possible safeguard and anti dumping measures.
The proposed policy comes as India seeks to expand its manufacturing base and strengthen domestic industrial capacity. Steel is expected to remain an important part of the country's long term industrial development.
However, the more than 600 million tonne target remains a proposal at this stage. The draft policy has yet to go through public consultation and the final policy could change before it is formally adopted.
The proposed policy therefore links India's long term steel expansion with raw material security, domestic demand, international competitiveness and efforts to reduce the industry's carbon intensity.