The Hindu : Business : Steel cos. told to hold price

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Friday, May 25, 2007
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Steel cos. told to hold price

Special Correspondent

No dearth of iron ore for POSCO

— Photo: V. V. Krishnan

FOR A FREE AND FAIR MARKET: Union Minister of Steel, Chemicals and Fertilisers Ram Vilas Paswan (right), addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Thursday. Akhilesh Das, Minister of State for Steel, looks on.

NEW DELHI: The Centre on Thursday asked the steel industry to hold the price line as prices of key construction materials have already gone up by about 15 per cent in the last three years.

Highlighting his Ministry's achievements during the three-year UPA regime at a news conference here, Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan warned that if the steel producers still choose to jack up prices, they would have no right to seek concessions.

"[The] steel industry and [the] Government work together and the industry approaches us for various concessions. We ask them to keep the prices under control. If they cannot do this, they have no right to approach us for the same,'' he said.

The Government, Mr Paswan said, had set up a steel price monitoring committee to formulate a pricing strategy, scrutinise the price variations and act as a watchdog to ensure a free and fair market environment. On the availability of iron ore, Mr. Paswan maintained that there was no dearth of the raw material for Pohang Steel Company (POSCO) to set up its 12-million-tonne steel plant in Orissa.

"There is no dearth of iron ore for Posco,'' he said. On the ore export issue, he said, "We are not in favour of banning ore exports. However, we are of the opinion that high-quality ore should be available for our domestic expansion plans,'' he added.

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