By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, September 4, 2015 : With the global steel prices now at their lowest level since 2003—and steadily falling, rising imports of cheap steel from China and other countries, Indian steel producers on Friday sought Odisha government’s support to survive.

“The steel industries in India need support from the government as steel makers from China and some other countries dumping cheap steel forcing the domestic industries to cut down the price. This is one of the reasons behind the huge loss being incurred by the Indian steel industries,” the chairman of the Indian Steel Association [ISA] Naveen Jindal said.

A delegation of the ISA on Friday met chief minister Naveen Patnaik and sought his support at this critical juncture.

The steel industries have invested more than Rs two lakh crore in the state and provided employment to lakhs of people. In 2014-15, the steel industry has contributed about Rs 13,000 crore to Government Exchequers. Besides, more than Rs 300 crore has been spent on peripheral development activities in the year.

“The state government needs to protect and support us as steel makers have made huge investment in Odisha,” Jindal said.

ISA secretary General Sanak Mishra said, “We have been facing high input cost of raw material, logistics constraints, high utility charges such as water charges and contribution towards water conservation He further added, “We have urged the chief minister to direct the state owned Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) and merchant miners to increase production of iron ore in order to overcome scarcity of raw material.”

Mishra lamented that the price of raw materials remained high due to less production of iron ore in the state and the local steel industries are finding it difficult to compete with the imported steel.

The association also sought relief over the water cess being imposed by the state government on the steel industries. “We want water cess on the actual consumption of water and not on the allocation earlier made by the government,” Mishra said adding that steel industries by now have been very cautious on the use of water.