No plan to direct steel cos on pricing policy, says govt

The government is currently not considering to issue any directives to steel companies to maintain prices of their products at current levels, Steel Secretary R S Pandey said today.

"The steel price monitoring committee is studying the prices and will continue to do so in future, but there is presently no plan to issue any specific directives to steelmakers on prices," Pandey told reporters on the sidelines of an industry function. The inflation rate, based on the Wholesale Price Index, fell to 5.77 per cent for the week to April 21 from 6.09 per cent a week earlier. The government had asked steel companies in March to roll back the hike in product prices to help control inflation.

Subsequently, steelmakers had rolled back the price hike but raised product prices earlier this month in line with international prices. Starting April, prices of key inputs for steelmaking such as iron ore went up, prompting steel companies to hike product prices.

"In any case, domestic steelmakers only tend to maintain a parity with the import prices," Pandey said. On the issue of iron ore trade, Pandey tempered his earlier stance and said the steel ministry was not proposing a total ban on exports, but said, "we want to ensure there is enough iron ore to meet growing domestic capacities."