Welcome to JPC

The Beginning:

The genesis of the Joint Plant Committee (JPC) can be traced to the recommendations of Dr K N Raj Committee, based upon which the Government of India constituted it and placed on it the onus of formulating the guidelines for production and distribution of steel materials in the country. Headquartered in Kolkata, it has regional offices in New Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kanpur and Hyderabad.

At present, its members include the Development Commissioner for Iron & Steel (DCI&S) - Chairman. Five representatives from Steel Authority of India Ltd. (SAIL); one each from Tata Iron & Steel Co. Ltd. (TISCO), Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Ltd. (RINL) and Ministry of Railways.

With easy availability of most of the iron and steel materials in the country the control on production and distribution, exercised by the Government through JPC earlier, were relaxed from time to time. With improvements in the availability and liberalization of the economy, the Government decontrolled the prices of iron and steel produced by the main producers and partially withdrew the distribution control on iron and steel materials.

The Changing Nature:

With the liberalization of the economy since 1992 and the various changes due to the withdrawal of distribution control and deregulation of prices the functions of JPC has changed considerably, which can be broadly classified under following major groups.

Distribution:

Coordinating the demand and supply of Iron & Steel produced by the member steel plants in respect of Defence, Railway, Small Scale Industries Corporation, Exporters of Engineering Goods and the North Eastern Region and assisting DCI&S in ensuring supplies on priority in terms of distribution guidelines.

Data Bank:

Over the years JPC has built up an efficient and reliable data-base in respect of the iron and steel industry, which had come out as a by-product of the various regulatory measures on account of the control regime. In the post liberalization era, this database has been extended to various other aspects of the industry to assist the Ministry of Steel as well as industry in their various planning and development exercises. The present database of JPC of information on dispatches and sales of various categories of steel products, section, quality-wise to the various consumers by the main producers. The data on the main producers has been supplemented in the database through the collection of data by the DCI&S Office.

Dissemination of Information:

Information is essential ingredient for the development of any industry. Keeping this in view JPC has developed its quarterly periodical bulletin to standards praised by all. Reports of the survey conducted by JPC and DCI&S, sector-wise directories of the producers etc are positive steps towards the fulfillment of the need for the industry. Analytical report like Performance Review of Iron & Steel Industry, an annual appointment of JPC has been well received.

Custodian of Funds:

JPC acts as the secretariat of the Steel Development Fund (SDF). The Ministry of Steel has decided to promote Research and Development for which an amount of Rs 150 crore annually has been earmarked from SDF. The off-take of Iron & Steel for all Small Scale Industries Corporations in the country is being subsidized from SDF also.

Seminars and Workshops:

JPC constantly organizes seminars on technology, infrastructure, environment and promotion of consumption to keep the industry informed about the latest development. This leads to frequent interaction between the producers and consumers and, thus paves the way towards the development of better marketing tools. The follow-ups of the seminars are bringing benefit to the industry.

Economic Research Unit (ERU):

In pursuant of the recommendation of Bureau of Industrial Cost & Pricing (BICP), Economic Research Unit (ERU) of JPC was set up in New Delhi as a wing of JPC in September’83 to assist Ministry of Steel in evaluation of project investments, preparation of interest schedule of SDF loans, upgrading data on BICP model relating to cost of production of various grades of steel in different plants and studies on demand projection and other economic matters. Besides this, ERU is presently dealing with various techno-economic issues and generating reports of importance.

Promotional job has now been more important for the steel industry ever before. In keeping with the tune of need, JPC under the aegis of Ministry of Steel and active support of the industry has slipped numerous organizations into gear. Notable among them are:

1. Steel Exporters Forum – It was constituted to promote exports of Indian Iron & Steel, to minimize the problems faced by the exporters and to fight dumping charges with the collaborative support of Ministry of Commerce and Indian Steel Producers. SEF is involved in the collection of International Trade information, analysis of the trend of global steel trade and dissemination of the same in a regular manner. The organization is active in all these areas.

2. National Campaign Committee – This is a producer-dominated body working for the cause of steel promotion in our country with special emphasis on rural market. Several schemes to promote consumption of steel have been taken up by NCC like promotion of Metal grain storage system, steel truck bodies etc.