Meeting to analyse variation in steel prices next week

New Delhi: The proposed meeting of the steel ministry and the steel makers next week is aimed at analysing the reasons behind price variations in different types of steel, a senior official said today.

“The reason for meeting the steel makers is to find out the reason why the prices are behaving a different way than they normally behave. It is (the steel sector) deregulated, how can I control the price?” steel secretary DRS Chaudhary said in reply to a question in New Delhi.[caption id=“attachment_320447” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Secretary, Ministry of Steel, DRS Chaudhary. Image courtesy PIB”]  [/caption]

Data suggest the prices of long products are higher than that of flat products.

Interestingly, the cost of production of long products, used in construction sector is less compared to flat products which are used in the auto and fast moving consumer durable sectors.

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“The proposed meeting is going to take place on 1 June,” a source said.

A few days ago Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma had said though the prices of steel had not “abnormally” gone up in recent times, but “there is a scope to reduce the prices”.

Leading producers like SAIL, Tata Steel and Essar Steel have increased prices in recent times, particularly for long products.

In April, the steel makers had raised prices for both long and flat products by up to Rs 1,500 a tonne, to partially offset the higher production costs due to hike in freight rates on iron ore.

In general, the steel producers hike the prices at the beginning of the month analysing the demand-supply situation and the absorbing capacity of the market.

According to the data of joint plant committee of the steel ministry, prices of different steel products have shot up nearly 11 percent between April 2011 and March 2012.

PTI