‘Need for greater efficiency in steel wire industry’

Our Corporate Bureau

Kolkata, Sept 20: At a time when steel wire makers are demanding cheaper basic inputs such as wire rods, Tata Steel managing director B Muthuraman asked them to become efficient to meet future challenges.

Addressing the 31st annual general meeting of the Steel Wire Manufacturers Association of India (SWMAI), Mr Muthuraman said, “We should concentrate on how to produce steel wires at a lower cost, by Rs 2,000 per tonne, to remain competitive. In future, the cost of steel would continue to go down.” The price of a tonne of wire rods at present varies between Rs 15,000-20,000.

He said the steel industry in general and steel wire makers in particular, should also learn how to make higher profits. “And that cannot be done unless the industry is restructured and the units made operationally superior,” he said.

SWMAI chairman RC Purohit pointed out that prices of steel wires had remained static, or dipped, in the past two to three years and said, “Increase of prices of wire rods has become a matter of concern for steel wire drawing units, in a situation where the industry is finding it very difficult to recover even the variable cost.”

He said the steel wire industry could benefit a lot if wire rod manufacturers sold their products at a discount of even a paltry Rs 100 a tonne from the price they get in the international markets.