Steel makers offer to cut prices by Rs 4000/ton

Leading steel producers on Wednesday offered to reduce prices of hot rolled coils by Rs 4,000 a ton, as part of their efforts to ease inflation.

"We have offered to reduce prices by Rs 4,000 per ton on hot rolled coils," a senior steel industry official said, after a meeting with Steel Secretary Raghav Sharan Pandey in New Delhi.

The producers would also meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh later on Wednesday to discuss, among other issues, the pricing situation. Steel prices have risen by a whopping 49 per cent during the past one year triggering concerns that soaring prices of the metal were augmenting inflationary pressures on the economy.

The government had recently decided to impose export duty on steel products following a sharp in rise in prices of the metal and its increasing demand-supply mismatch. Earlier, the government had charged the steel industry with cartelisation and raising prices of the metal in tandem.

Leading steel makers who formed the Indian Steel Alliance (ISA) as their umbrella organisation dissolved it amid fears that the industry was indulging in cartelisation. Incidentally, ISA had been on the forefront of a campaign against imposing export duty and setting up a regulator for the industry.

Among those who met the steel secretary included Tata Steel MD B Muthuraman, JSW Steel Vice Chairman and MD Sajjan Jindal, SAIL Chairman Sushil Kumar Roongta, Ispat Industries MD Vinod Kumar Mittal and Essar Steel Chief Shashi Ruia.