Cold rolled steel makers write to FM

The Cold Rolled Steel Manufacturers Association of India (CORSMA) has written to Finance Minister P Chidambaram, saying that three hot rolled (HR) coils manufacturers "" Essar Steel, Ispat Industries and Jindal Vijayanagar "" have hiked the average price of HR coils for the domestic industry for October 2004 despatches by over Rs 1,050 per tonne.

CORSMA Executive Director SC Mathur said the companies had arbitrarily assumed that CR coil manufacturers export 70 per cent of their output and sell the rest in the domestic market.

"This is not true. No CR coil manufacturer exports more than 10-15 per cent of their production. Hence to have a dual price system for domestic sales and exports or deemed exports is not correct," Mathur said. He added that such a dual pricing system was unprecedented not only in India but the world over.

All major HR coil manufacturers had announced price cuts when the government had advised a rollback in August this year.

Essar, however, through a press note refuted the charge and said there had been no increase in the price in the domestic market and that prices for exports and deemed exports were linked to international prices and negotiated on a case-to-case basis.

CORSMA said the domestic price of Rs 27,850 a tonne or $607 a tonne is much higher than the domestic price of $510 a tonne in Japan or $480 a tonne in South Korea and other Asian countries.

Mathur said high domestic prices had made Indian engineering products uncompetitive both in the global and domestic markets and the domestic consumption of CR products had declined in the past two years.