India’s Ministry of Steel will make quality certification mandatory for 100 percent of steel products manufactured by secondary steel producers over the next few months, a ministry official said on Wednesday, September 19.
The official said that currently quality certification from the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) was mandatory for about 86 percent of products manufactured by the secondary sector, while quality codes will be finalized for the remaining 14 percent of the products and BIS certification will be made mandatory for these products.
The official said that currently the secondary steel sector accounts for 57 percent of total domestic steel production and its share is expected to rise to 70 percent with total domestic steel produced due to touch the 300 million mt target by 2030.
In such a case with the secondary sector accounting for the bulk of domestic steel producers, mandatory certification needs to cover their entire product range, the official said.
Opposition to mandatory certification from secondary steel producers has been overcome since the ministry explained to them that, since all infrastructure projects have been directed to use only quality certified steel, unless secondary steel sector products are entirely certified secondary steel producers will not be able to bid for these projects as suppliers, the official added.