Steel producers roll back price rise

Major steel producers have agreed to a partial roll back on the price rise carried out by them in February 2008, by Rs1,000 per tonne for TMT and rounds and Rs500 per tonne for other steel products.

The roll back is with immediate effect, in response to an appeal by the union minister of steel Ram Vilas Paswan during a meeting of chief executives of SAIL, RINL, Tata Steel, Essar Steel, JSW Steel, Jindal Steel & Power and Ispat Industries Limited called by him to convey to them the government's concern over the rise in steel prices.

A preliminary discussion with these major steel producers had already taken place earlier under the chairmanship of R S Pandey, secretary, ministry of steel.

The minister conveyed the concern of the government regarding the impact of the sudden price hike in steel commodities carried out effected by steel producers in the last two months. He stated that the price hike, apart from hitting the common man due to its cascading effect on inflation, would also affect many of the downstream consumer industries such as small and medium manufacturers and construction sectors. The manufacturers also expressed concern over the rising input costs due to steep hike in the prices of iron ore, coking coal, metcoke, ferro alloys and transportation costs.

Paswan told them that the government would initiate suitable policy directives and would help in facilitating the growth of the sector as a whole so as to augment the supply side in order to bridge the demand-supply gap and maintain a stable price line.