QUESTIONS ON MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES-IRON& STEEL INDUSTRY

Q. What are mineral based industries?
A. Industries that use minerals & metals as their raw material are called mineral based industries.
Q. Why do we call iron & steel industry a basic industry?
A. It is a basic industry since all the other industries—heavy, medium, light depend on it for their machinery.
--steel is needed to manufacture a variety of engineering goods, construction material, defence , medicine, telephonic, scientific equipment &variety of consumer goods.
Q. Production & consumption of steel is often regarded as the index of country,s .development. Comment.
A. It is an manufacturing industry therefore bring in profit.
--It indicates technological level of a country.
Why iron & steel is is a heavy industry?
Because the raw material as well as the finished goods are heavy & bulky entailing heavy transportation cost.
Q. What do you know about iron & steel industry in India?
A. It is a basic/ key industry.
--India ranks ninth among the worlds crude steel producers.—32.8 million tons
--India is the largest producer of the spong iron.
--Presently there are 10 primary integrated & many mini steel plants in India.
--over all production of steel is sufficient to meet the demands of the country
--Liberalisation & Foreign Direct Investment have given boost to the industry with the efforts of private entrepreneurs.
Q. What is the difference between mini steel plant & integrated steel plant?
a)Mini steel plants are smaller, have electric furnaces, use steel scrape & spong iron.
They produce mild & alloy steel of given specifications.
where as Integrated steel plnats are larger, handle every thing in one complex-from putting together raw material to steel making, rolling and shaping.
Q. What do you about SAIL & TISCO?
A. All public sector undertakings market their steel through steel authority of India—SAIL & TISCO markets its produce through Tata Steel.
Q. Where does India’s steel production stand in the world market today?
--In 1950’s China & India produced almost same quantity of steel.
--Today, China is the largest producer & the largest consumer of steel.
--In 2004, India was the largest exporter of the steel which accounted for 2.25% of global steel trade.
Q. What problems are faced by the iron & steel industry ?
A. Though India is an important producer of iron & steel in the world yet we are not able to perform to our full potential largely due to :
a) high cost & limited availability of coking coal
b) low productivity of labour
c) irregular supply of energy
d) poor infrastructure
e) there is need to allocate resources for research & development to produce steel more computatively.