India's Minister for Steel has called on the New National Steel Policy to ensure sufficient supplies of natural gas to gas based DRI producers. Supplies have been restricted in the past by the Ministry of petroleum & Natural Gas.
India is the world leader in the production of DRI, producing 23.25Mt in FY 2010-11 of which 6.19Mt was from gas based plants operated by Essar Steel in Gujarat, Ispat Industries in Maharashtra and Welspun Maxsteel also located on Maharashtra.
The remaining 17.0Mt of DRI was produced in coal fired rotary kilns of which around 80 companies operated in 2010-11.