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| Steel producers mulling price hike in flat products |
| BS Reporter / Kolkata Jul 08, 2009, 14:32 IST |
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Steel producers are considering a price hike in flat products, used in the automobile and consumer durables sectors.
A decision regarding the hike would be taken over the next few days. Jayant Acharya, director (sales & marketing), JSW Steel said, some kind of small correction was likely in zinc-based products like galvanized steel this month.
“We are yet to decide whether we would hike prices of hot rolled and cold rolled products. We are currently reviewing whether we can increase prices this month,” he said.
The price increase would be on the back of a strong upward movement in international steel prices. Ankit Miglani, director (commercial), Uttam Galva Steels (cold roller and galvanized steel manufacturer) said that the company had not decided on a price hike, but was discussing with suppliers.
Industry sources said, galvanized steel producers were contemplating an increase of around Rs 750 a tonne.
Anil Sureka, director (finance), Ispat Industries said, international prices were strong and the company would decide on a hike in the next couple of days.
The steel industry was hoping that government would propose an import duty hike by 5-10 per cent across steel products, which had not happened.
Sureka said that would not be a deterrent for a price increase as prices were moving up in the international market. In the last one month, hot rolled coil prices increased $50 to $500 a tonne.
Acharya said that it appeared prices in the international market had bottomed out. “But the industry was more concerned about a demand revival and hence the cautious approach to price hike.”
Moreover, the supply side had also improved in the domestic market with more and more producers normalizing production.
The industry had to resort to an average 30 per cent production cut towards the end of 2008 with the global slowdown. While most of the steel producers in the domestic market had normalized production, international companies were yet to restore production cuts.
However, Indian cold rollers disagreed. “Supply of hot rolled coils is tight in the market,” said a cold rolled producer.
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