Orissa steel cos want govt to adopt RIL gas price model

Orissa steel producers today said the government should adopt a model of pricing for iron-ore like KG basin gas of Reliance to save the steel industry and to protect the interest of the fertiliser and power sector.

"Iron ore is a national resource on which all steel companies are surviving, but abnormal pricing by private miners and government's inability to provide ore through alternate means is leading to closure of most small and medium steel companies in the country," All Odisha Steel Federation president Purushottam Kandoi said here today.

The Federation demanded that government should regulate iron ore similar to natural gas which RIL sells at a price decided by government to fertiliser and power units.

"Government has failed to offer either captive mines or ore at a reasonable price at a time iron ore is being sold at Rs 6,000 per tonne when extraction cost is just Rs 500 per tonne," Shyam Steel Director Lalit Beriwala said.

Thus the government should either nationalise all iron ore mines or should adopt the model used for RIL's KG basin natural gas, Kandoi said.

He said out of the 400 steel companies in India about 100 were sick or closed.