India’s largest B2B e-commerce company, mjunction services limited, organised the 10th edition of Indian Steel Markets Conference at India Habitat Centre in New Delhi on September 27 and 28. The theme of this year’s conference was *“Indian Steel: Innovating Solutions for Smarter & Sustainable Future.” *Shri Nagendra Nath Sinha, IAS, Secretary, Ministry of Steel, Shri Amarendu Prakash, Chairman, SAIL and MrA K Saxena, CMD of MOIL with additional charge MECON, among other industry leaders, spoke on issues relating to challenges of decarbonization of the steel sector and the need for collaboration between industry players to achieve it. There was call for collaborations to indigenise the technologies and achieve domestic production of key inputs to reduce imports.

While looking at ways to expand the steel market, steelmakers need to look at steel manufacturing value chain, from mining to Renewable Energy consumption, which itself will generate demand for steel, MrAmarendu Prakash, Chairman, SAIL said.

Mr Vishwanath Suresh, Director (Commercial), NMDC Ltd, deliberated upon other challenges like logistical constraints leading to circuitous movements of material and lack of beneficiation of iron ore.

In his opening address, Mr Vinaya Varma, MD of mjunction, said that the Indian steel industry is passing through challenging times related to reduction of greenhouse gases and achieving decarbonisation.

As global supply chains realign, India is a favourable place to secure new manufacturing investments. In order to keeps the momentum going, the steel industry in India is aiming to be competitive through innovations in sale, buy and logistics functions. Product sustainability, efficient supply chain management, innovative digital solutions and circular economy are the key enablers to take the industry forward.

Towards this, mjunction has taken some initiatives – one of them is creating a Met Coal Platform to help Indian buyers buy met coal as per demand-supply scenario prevailing in India. mjunction has also designed online platforms to ensure that steel scrap generated from various sources i.e. ELV scrap, Home Scrap, Industrial scrap etc are consistently available to consumers from all over India, thereby contributing to a more sustainable steel production.

“We, at mjunction, help the steel companies procure scrap of consistent quality, delivered to their location, making it hassle free and transparent,” Mr Varma informed on the sidelines of the conference.