The Hindu : Business : Steel majors to roll back prices of TMT bars, coils

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Steel majors to roll back prices of TMT bars, coils

Special Correspondent

Paswan to take up the issue of excise duty cut with the Finance Ministry

Steel Minister to discuss increase in
freight rate with Railway Ministry
Iron ore producers will be consulted
over the issue of rising prices

— PHOTO: RAMESH SHARMA

PRICE CUT: Union Minister for Steel, Chemicals and Fertilisers, Ram Vilas Paswan, addressing a press conference in New Delhi on Thursday.

NEW DELHI: Major steel producers on Thursday agreed on a partial rollback in the prices of TMT bars and rounds by Rs. 1,000 a tonne along with hot-rolled coils (HRC) and other steel products by Rs. 500 a tonne with immediate effect.

The decision by steel majors followed a meeting with Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan to discuss the steel pricing issue as the primary producers had hiked their product prices by about Rs. 1,500-2,000 a tonne earlier this month, leading to widespread protests by consumers.

Speaking to newspersons after the meeting, Mr. Paswan noted that the producers had ‘voluntarily’ agreed to roll back a part of the hike in the prices of steel so as to benefit the common man. The price cut, he said, was considered necessary as TMT bars were an item of mass consumption, being an essential construction material.

The meeting was attended by the chief executives of the state-owned Steel Authority of India Ltd. and RINL, along with Tata Steel, Essar Steel, JSW Steel, Jindal Steel & Power and Ispat Industries in the private sector. Preliminary discussions with these major steel producers had already taken place at a meeting under the chairmanship of the Steel Secretary on issues concerning steel prices.

The price hike effected earlier this month, Mr. Paswan pointed out, was affecting several downstream industries, small and medium manufacturers and the construction sector, apart from burdening the common man owing to its cascading inflationary effect.

During the discussion, SAIL Chairman S. K. Roongta noted that the producers were forced to increase steel prices owing to the hike in input costs. However, they were ready to roll back the prices in the interest of the common man. Naveen Jindal of Jindal Steel and Power also pointed out that the voluntary price cut was to negate the impression that the price hike effected earlier was arbitrary. The railway freight, he said, had shot up by 50-90 per cent while prices of coking coal and ferro alloys had also gone up substantially.

Mr. Paswan declared that for lowering input costs, his Ministry would take up the issue with the Finance Ministry and press for reducing the excise duty on steel to eight per cent from 16 per cent and also discuss the increase in freight rate with the Railway Ministry. The Finance Ministry had also been requested to abolish the duty on scrap steel and coke. The problem of rising ore prices, he said, would also be taken up with the iron ore producers.

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