India steel minister: steel output will double in two years

India steel minister: steel output will double in two years. India will double its steel production in the next two years even if the big-ticket Posco and ArcelorMittal projects do not take off, Steel Minister Virbhadra Singh said. "At present, the steel production is 59.9 million tonnes. By 2011-12, it should increase to at least 120 million tonnes," Singh told PTI in an interview. Asked whether the ambitious target can be met even if the Rs 1.5 lakh-crore Posco and ArcelorMittal projects do not materialise by then, he said, "Yes, we have not taken those into account." He said that besides several major producers like Jindal Steel, JSW, Essar Steel, Bhushan Steel and Tata Steel, many secondary steel producers were also implementing capacity-expansion projects. "We are emerging as a steel-making power. We have ambitious projects to enhance the production," he said. The minister said that state-owned SAIL and RINL were also enhancing their existing plants at Bokaro, Bhilai, Durgapur and Visakhapatnam at an investment of Rs 80,000 crore. India's largest steel firm, SAIL, is slated to raise its production capacity from 14 million tonnes to 23 million tonnes. "We have launched a very big programme of expansion and modernisation of SAIL and RINL plants," Singh said, adding that all the major orders for equipment have already been placed. He said that the government expected most of the expansion work to be completed by 2011-12. "It will increase the capacity in the public sector, which will be almost double (of present)," he said. Singh said that the government is concerned about the ArcelorMittal and Posco projects, which have been stuck for over five years now. "The Prime Minister (Manmohan Singh) has shown his personal keenness," he said, adding that his ministry has taken up the issue with the state governments concerned. On tribal protests against land acquisition for the Rs 54,000-crore Posco project in Orissa, Singh said that the industry should not acquire more than the land required. "I fully endorse ... I support the opposition that the land more than the required, should not be acquired," he said.