The Hindu Business Line : Ministry calls steel producers’ meet on Feb 15

Kolkata, Feb. 8 The Union Ministry of Steel will convene a meeting of steel producers in the country on February 15 to discuss the contentious issue of the hike in steel prices that was announced recently by steel companies.

Addressing newspersons on the sidelines of a steel conference that was held here on Friday, the Union Minister for Steel, Chemicals & Fertilisers, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, said the meeting would deliberate on whether the hike in steel prices was justified and proportionate to the rise in the price of crucial raw material inputs such as iron ore and coking coal.

Mr Paswan admitted that the steel industry had to cope with an increase in the prices of coking coal and iron ore. Despite this, however, he was “not in favour” of the steel price hike, he said.

SAIL has been asked to explore possibilities for setting up joint ventures abroad for meeting its coking coal requirements, he added.

No impact

According to him, it would make no impact in the marketplace if steel producers in the public sector refrained from hiking steel prices. “The public sector steel plants account for barely one-third of the total steel production in the country. Even if they do not increase the prices, it is unlikely to benefit the consumer or impact the marketplace”, he said.

Mr Paswan said the steel sector in the country was buoyant and India was set to become the second-largest steel producer in the world after China by 2015. The Inter-Ministerial Group had revised the domestic steel production target to 100 million tonnes by 2011-12 even as the country was expected to produce 200 million tonnes of steel by 2020.

With regard to the proposed chemicals hub at Nayachar Island near Haldia, he said a detailed proposal in this regard was awaited from the State government. After it is received, a high-powered committee would vet the same before it is placed before the Union Cabinet for its approval.

Mr Paswan said that since acquisition of land on a contiguous basis was difficult in West Bengal, the Centre would be happy to waive the stipulation of a minimum of 250 sq. km for the hub to be brought under the ambit of the Petroleum, Chemicals & Petrochemicals Investment Region.