In a webinar on 'Indian Non-Ferrous Metals Industry', organized by industry chamber FICCI on Thursday, Niti Aayog Member, V K Saraswat said that there is a need for well-developed non-ferrous metals industry in India that can provide the important raw material to several manufacturing sectors that are the backbone of our country’s economic development. Saraswat said as the demand in end-use sectors picks up in future, the non-ferrous metals industry will undergo a complete paradigm shift.
"With increasing usage of non-ferrous metals in several existing as well as emerging applications coupled with new technologies, we can expect a paradigm shift that can change the way non-ferrous metals will be produced and consumed in the future," he said. In order to further boost the sector, Saraswat emphasized the early implementation of the recycling policy.
"The much-needed reforms on guidelines or standards for boosting domestic scrap recycling would be addressed by the Metal Recycling Policy which the government has formulated along with the industry stakeholders," he noted. Saraswat further said the industry must also invest more on R&D in order to become globally competitive.
"Government's role is to provide policy initiatives and ease of doing business, but industry must come forward with investments in high-value products for producing not only for the domestic markets but also for exports," he added. Saraswat also said that the government is working on issues like inverted duty structure, dumping of goods under various FTAs, poor infrastructure, high logistics and power costs and taxation.
It is important to note that non-ferrous metals, due to their inherent characteristics like excellent thermal and electrical conductivity, high recyclability, high strength-to-weight ratios, form the backbone of a growing economy like India’s. Metals like aluminium, copper, zinc and lead are key inputs to a wide range of critical industries, including infrastructure, power, automobile, defence, transport, telecom and manufacturing in general.
Government reforms like Make in India, focus on urbanization, including initiatives like Smart Cities, place strong emphasis on expansion of our manufacturing sector and growth of the manufacturing sector is directly proportional to the growth of the non-ferrous metals industry. (Source: PTI, FICCI, Business Standard)
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