Stainless steel consumption in India will rise by at least 140,000tns over the next one year or so after the railway minister announced plans to build new freight wagons and passenger coaches from the metal. Mr Lalu Prasad Yadav union railways minister told Parliament that 20,000 new freight wagons would be needed in 2008-09 and they would be constructed from stainless steel. He added that all new passenger coaches would be made from the commodity by the following year. According to Mr NC Mathur, president of the Indian Stainless Steel Development Institute, each freight wagon will use 7tns of stainless steel. Twenty thousand such wagons will be made requiring 140,000tns of stainless steel nickel free grade in the coming year or so.
