Raw material is a critical enabler for ensuring sustained growth in iron & steel industry. The industry faces challenges both in the short and long term in terms of raw material security. Ministry of Steel takes up related raw material issues with Ministry of Mines, Ministry of Coal, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change along with Logistic Ministries and the concerned State Governments.

There is sufficient reserve of iron ore and non-coking coal in the country to meet the current demand/consumption by domestic steel industry. However, the coking coal is imported as the supply of high-quality coal/ coking coal (low-ash coal) in the country is limited as compared to the demand which is primarily used by Integrated Steel Producers.
Steel CPSEs have been procuring coking coal from a diversified group of countries mainly Australia, United States, Indonesia, Mozambique, Russia etc. As Coking coal is a major chunk of manufacturing cost in steel production, Ministry of Steel is continuously making efforts to reduce the import bill of coking coal by diversifying the import destinations, maximize use of Pellets to reduce Coke requirement, beneficiation of iron ore to increase iron content, coking coal blend optimisation etc. Additionally, Ministry of Steel and Ministry of Coal have planned to reduce the burden of import bill of coal under the Mission Coking Coal by increasing domestic coal production from existing mines and setting up of new washeries. In order to enhance the availability of domestic coking coal to steel industries, steps have been taken which include allocation of coking coal block, auction of coking coal, MoU for coking coal linkage etc.