Steel prices: government to do all?

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: getting dragged more and more into it.

The government needs greater market intelligence and more producer specific information to see if its thoughts are on the right track. It needs to look into the competition issues. There are many to worry about. The Competition Commission of India can definitely look into the pricing issues if there is a fear of malpractice.

Supply side concerns are serious. While the government here has been slow in all that needed to be done, the industry faces extensive social resistance to land acquisitions. Mega projects means longer time to start up and requirement of facilities at a hugely larger scale. Managing such large investments has not been very easy in India. There could be better economics and sense for small and mid size plants. At the current rate, unless a big recession takes away India’s steel consumption demand, the country’s steel policy regime seems destined to increasing and unfortunate interventions.