Upset with the rising steel prices in the country, the steel ministry will meet major steel manufacturers like Tata Steel Ltd, JSW Steel Ltd, Essar Steel and Ispat Industries, among others, on Thursday and will seek to apply brakes on frequent price hikes in the sector.
?The steel minister is disturbed by the fact that the steel industry has raised the prices of steel that is produced using raw material earlier. Iron ore and coking prices have increased just now, so the increased cost of production should be passed on to the consumers later and not now. They will have to justify the frequent hikes in prices,? said a source in the ministry.
According to the source, ?There will be pressure from the steel ministry on the steel manufacturer to roll back the prices to certain extent.?
Steel contributes to 6% of the total inflation index and the government may intervene if the hike in prices raises inflation, say industry observers.
The Centre in 2008 had asked steel firms to refrain from hiking prices and had also managed to get them to agree to a moratorium on prices for a period of three months. Steel minister Virbhadra Singh reportedly said the domestic steel industry is acting like a ?cartel? with an unjustified price increase.