Union Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday called for reducing imports of finished steel goods. He urged the industry to leverage technology and resources available in the country.

"We are the second largest producer of steel in the world, (but) for our own consumption we have to import finished goods," Pradhan said while addressing the 'Virtual National Mining Summit 2020', organised by industry body PHD Chamber.

He said sufficient raw materials are available in the country, while the technology to produce various steel products is already available.

"...today even many MSMEs are importing their raw material, be it scrap or low grade metals. The import cost is cheap compared to producing them in the country. We will work to address this issue also," he added.

Minister of State (MoS) for Steel Faggan Singh Kulaste had earlier asked steel makers to identify the grades of steel which are not manufactured in the country but are widely used, and to develop them in India.

Industry players can conduct research and development (R&D) activities, go for transfer of technology or form joint venture to set up special grade steel plants in the country, he had said.

"India is the second largest producer of steel in the entire world, yet it is fully dependent on imports for special grade steel. In 2019-20, imports of 6.778 million tonne (MT) took place and India exported 8.356 MT...In monetary terms, import of Rs 44,683 crore happened while export was (lower) at Rs 36,726 crore," Kulaste had said.