Despite having vast reserves of good quality Iron ore the steel sector in India has not been a...........

Geography Industry

Despite having vast reserves of good quality Iron ore, the steel sector in India has not been able to develop to its full potential. What could be the possible reasons behind this?

1. Limited availability of good quality coking coal.

2. Cheap imports from other countries.

3. Lack of basic infrastructure like skilled labour, power and transport.

Select the correct answer using the codes given below.

2 and 3 only

1 and 2 only

1 and 3 only

All of the above

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Explanation:

India has huge reserves of Iron ore and most of it is Magnetite or Hematite i.e. good quality iron ore. Also, India has now surpassed USA to become third largest producer of steel in the world next to China and Japan. But still, the steel production in India is way lower than the potential it possesses. This is due to several factors discussed below.
Coal is one of the major inputs of iron and steel industry (Iron ore : Coal= 2:1). Most of the Coal in India is the Bituminous Gondwana Coal which is of poor quality compared to the high grade anthracite coal. As a result we cannot consume most of our iron ore reserves and export them without realizing the advantages of value addition.
Cheap imports from China, Japan, South Korea also hurt our Iron & Steel industry. In past several years, most of the anti-dumping duty cases have been against Chinese firms involving steel only.
Finally, poor infrastructure like power, transport etc. are woes of all manufacturing industries in India.
In addition to this, the Indian Iron & Steel industry also suffers from lack of technology to manufacture high grade steel.