The Hindu Business Line : Steel pipe makers to cut prices

This emerged from a meeting between steel manufacturers and officials in the Ministry of Steel headed by Steel Secretary, Mr R.S. Pandey, here on Thursday.

The meeting was convened by the Ministry in a bid to convince the industry to bring down prices to contain rising inflation which has crossed the 11 per cent mark in May.

Maharshtra Seamless Ltd and other pipe makers have agreed to lower prices by 10 per cent to Rs 48,000 a tonne to ensure domestic availability, Mr Pandey told reporters after the meeting.

The manufacturers said they would fix a price ceiling of Rs 48,000 a tonne for pipes and tubes with immediate effect. Currently prices are ruling in the range of Rs 52,000-53,000 a tonne.

Discouraging exports

Major primary producers present in the meeting including SAIL, RINL, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, JSPL and Ispat, have also assured the Government that they would discourage direct and indirect exports of hot rolled coils and subsequently cold rolled and galvanised products to increase availability in the domestic market.

Prices in the domestic retail market have been rising during the past two weeks. To contain rising retail prices of steel it has been decided that the companies would implement the maximum retail price (MRP) policy strictly.

Explaining the details of the MRP policy followed by the primary producers with respect to their dealers, Mr Pandey said that the “present practice is that for certain quantities of offtake by dealers, the primary producers don’t insist on MRP, which they may insist now to benefit end consumers.”

The Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of JSW, Mr Sajjan Jindal, said that “the industry has decided to reduce direct and indirect exports of HR coils to enhance its availability in the domestic market, besides reviewing the MRP arrangements with dealers to benefit end consumers.”

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