Tata Steel in no hurry to raise prices

Tata Steel today indicated it is in no hurry to raise the price of the key commodity as the self-imposed moratorium by the domestic steel makers for holding prices ends next week.        

"The company will take a view as to what needs to be done. Surely we will look at it from all direction, but timing is not necessarily linked to the moratorium," Tata Steel Group Chief Financial Officer Koushik Chatterjee said when asked whether the company would be raising prices from this month.        

Lending support to the Government in its fight against the runaway inflation, now at 11.98 per cent, domestic steel makers had on May 7 promised to hold prices for three months.        

 

Chatterjee said international steel prices are higher by $ 350 per tonne than the doemstic rates.        

JSW Steel Vice-Chairman and Managing Direcor had on July 31 attributed the dip in the company's net profit to the moratorium between steel makers and the Government for holding the price of the commodity.        

JSW Steel's net profit came down to Rs 219.35 crore in the first quarter of the current fiscal as compared to Rs 468.45 crore in the same period last fiscal.        

Chatterjee said holding of the price did not have much impact on the company's bottomline since Tata Steel sells in excess of 70 per cent of its total domestic production on long-term contracts.        

Tata Steel's net profit for the quarter ended June 30 rose 21.78 per cent to Rs 1,488.4 crore as against Rs 1,222.11 crore in the same period in the last fiscal.