Vizag Steel hikes prices

Visakhapatnam Steel Plant (VSP) has marginally increased the prices of some of its products with immediate effect.

"Shortage of material has raised the demand for some of our products following which we have increased the prices slightly," VSP sources said.

VSP has hiked its wire rods prices by Rs 200 per tonne on all sizes ranging from 5.5 mm to 14 mm, while the price of electrode quality wire rods, used in the manufacture of electrodes, has been hiked by Rs 800 per tonne.

Re-bars prices have been increased by Rs 200 per tonne on all sizes while pig iron prices have been raised by Rs 800 per tonne, steel traders said. The company, however, has announced a discount of Rs 500 on each tonne to steel traders who lift more than 10,000 tonnes at a time.

VSP recently stopped the production of its wire rods for 15 days due to maintenance work undertaken by the plant.

According to Krishna Rao, director of Vizag Profiles, a leading steel trading company, the steel plant's bar mill has been facing problems for the past three months, which has led to the slowdown of 16 mm bar products.

"Owing to these reasons, material supply to the market has been reduced to some extent, resulting in the rise in demand. To check the situation, VSP has increased its prices slightly," he said.