Sinha, who spoke on behalf of the Indian stainless steel producers at the conference organised by the Metal Bulletin, said he has been asked to prepare a detailed note of his experience and learning from this seminar.

The note will be forwarded to the competent authority and to the Indian Stainless Steel Development Association (ISSDA) for implementation in India.The Union steel ministry has already paid Rs 1.75 lakh to the ISSDA for study of the status of this industry as well as its demand and availability.

Sinha said the conference was attended by over a thousand officials of the stainless steel industry from all over the world. Speakers represented companies like Thyssen-Krupp of Germany, Avesta Sheffields of UK, Ugine Groupe ofFrance and others.

The conference, which was followed by another one on nickel, helped to exchange not only the views of different producers and the consumers but discussed in details the technological advancement which is more important for the development of consumption.

Japan has a per capita consumption of 18kg of stainless steel and east Asian countries 5-6kg, while India's consumption is only 0.6-07kg. Moreover, India uses only 20 per cent of the country's stainless steel production for industrial purposes, while advanced countries use 80 per cent. "This amply proves that there is an immense potential to develop the consumption of stainless steel in the country," he said. Sinha said, "We have learnt a lot from the presentations of M Pfitzner of Krupp Thyssen and Guy Dolle, chief executive officer of Ugine Groupe, on the usage of stainless steel flat production for industrial purpose." He said one of the problems of the stainless steel industry in the country was shortage of nickel.