Union steel minister Virbhadra Singh said there was no justification for raising the prices of steel when the cost of producing finished steel was low and the global demand for the metal too had fallen sharply.
“Barring India and China, the global demand has considerably dropped due to the economic slowdown.The cost of producing steel has also reduced. So there was no reason for raising the cost of steel both by private and PSU companies,” Singh told reporters here.
“We are planning an investment of Rs 70,000 crore in the steel ministry. We will manage this investment on our own and will not depend on grants from the government,” he said.
Without specifying the time frame, he said the plan was to double the production of steel in a time bound manner.
On disinvestment in the steel industry, he said, “We have some state-run units for disinvestment in mind. Our future action depends on how the Union Cabinet frames the disinvestment policy.”