Steel producers are meeting bus and truck body builders here to emphasise the point that costs of bodies built with steel sections are lower compared to those built using wood and other materials, industry sources said.

This meeting is part of steel promotional activities of "national campaign to promote steel", a committee constituted by the joint development commissioner of iron and steel under the chiarmanship of SK Gupta of Jindal Vijaynagar Steel Ltd.

With the commissioning of several new steel production units in the past few years, the availability of quality steel products have vastly improved. In particular the steel plants have developed production of special quality hot rolled and galvanised sheets and coils for building truck and bus bodies.The committee headed Dr AS Firoz,chief economist at Economic Research Unit (ERU) of the joint plant committee (JPC), is organisisng the meeting to promote usage of steel in body building.

The participants would also discuss quality requirements and other problems being faced by these body builders, in the utilisation of steel products, sources said. The steering committee had also taken up the matter with India's leading automobile giant Telco to assist in the improvement and standardisation of the designs of the steel bodies for trucks and buses to reduce costs, sources added.

The committee is also likely to recommend truck and bus body builders in different areas to manufacture the bodies in standard designs so that the steel plants ensure the supply of right quality and sizes at competitive prices.

In the promotion of steel usage in the automobile sector, Lloyds Steel has shown enormous interest apart from other cold rolled steel producers in the country.

The group for promotion of steel has also initiated many other projectsincluding promotion of steel usage in steel bins for grain storage, use of steel in infrastructure buildings like road guards, fencing and steel bridges.

The steel industry which has been passing through a tough time due to stagnant demand in the domestic as well the export market, the exercise to launch a promotional activity could go a long way in generating demand for steel.