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The domestic steel industry today requested the government to cut down import duty to nil from 5 per cent and also levy duty on HR coils to contain inflation.
The request comes in wake of steel prices shooting up by over 30 per cent in the last two months, on fears of possible increase in coal prices from major producing nation Australia.
“Steel manufacturers have increased prices by 30 per cent in the last two months anticipating that Australia may hike the coke price in view of the recent floods that impacted its coal mines,” the All India Confederation of Small & Micro Industries Association President Sudarshan Sareen said.
There is no reason for the Indian steel producers to effect a hefty Rs 9,000 per tonne increase in prices in January and February 2011. Even the public sector SAIL has become a party to this steep increase in steel prices, which is only adding to the current inflationary trends, Sareen said.
Industrial output dipped to a 20-month low of 1.6 per cent in December from 18 per cent in the same month in 2009.
As per the World Steel Association, India is seen to be emerging as the world’s third—biggest steel consumer after China and the United States. India consumed and procured about 60 million tonnes of steel this year.
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