Iron ore and coking coal have been seeing a lot of cost escalation recently. Kalyani Steels, which has not benefited from the Minimum Import Price (MIP), is also bearing the brunt of these costs.

BTVi spoke to RK Goyal, Managing Director, Kalyani Steels, to get an outlook as to how the steel prices will pan out going ahead and how the company is going through these times.

How are you managing these tough times, and what is the outlook ?

The coking coal prices have gone up from $76-$77 to almost $210-plus. Similarly, iron ore prices, in Karnataka particularly, have gone up to ₹500, depending on the grade.

So this has definitely increased our cost by almost ₹5,000. We have taken it up with all our customers. We are quite hopeful that they will accept this price increase.

Are you engaging with the clients one by one and negotiating prices? Has you seen any support in prices?

There are two things. One, we are producing highly-customised products; so interdependence is fairly large.

And we are continuously heading on services, which help us retain our customers. At the same time, while dumping is happening, it is a big challenge.

We have to adjust our prices time and again.

We have already requested the government; we have made several representations.

And we are hopeful that finally there will be something on our products also.

You have a facility at Hospet in Karnataka. When was the last time you participated in the Karnataka auction?

Almost 100 per cent of the iron ore in Karnataka is sold through e-auction.

Currently, because of the shortage of iron ore — while the base price is almost same — we will finally end up paying much more in the auction compared with what it was a few months ago.

Because the availability is not increasing — rather it is going down — that is impacting the prices.

As far the coking coal and coke is concerned, our costs have gone up by more than ₹4,000 on the coke front, and that is impacting our total numbers.

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