Why is the iron and steel industry called basic industries? State the problems faced by them.

Iron and steel industry is a heavy weight mineral based industry. It is called as a basic industry since all the other industries — heavy, medium and light, depend on it for their machinery. Steel is needed to manufacture a variety of engineering goods, construction material, defence, medical, telephonic, scientific equipment and a variety of consumer goods.

There are a number of problems faced by this industry, and they are as below:

1. Coking coal has limited availability and is costly.

2. The labour has lower productivity.

3. The industry requires huge energy supply, which is not always available.

4. Poor Infrastructure.