Ruias-owned Essar Steel today said it is looking at increasing prices of its products amid higher input costs and improved demand by April-May this year.
"As the demand for steel is going up globally and the input costs of coking coal and iron ore are rising, we are looking at hiking prices of our producs," Essar Steel Chief Executive Officer Malay Mukherjee told reporters at a conference here.
Mukherjee, however, said the cost of raw materials, the rate of re-stocking and capacity utilisation levels need to be considered.
The company also plans to expand its capacity to 14-million tonnes by this year end in both Hazira and Algoma plants, Mukherjee said.
The current production capacity at Hazira in Gujarat is 4.6-million tonnes per annum (MTPA) and is likely to go upto 10-MTPA this year while Algoma in Canada at 3-million tonnes would go upto 4-MTPA.
Essar Steel expects 80 per cent capacity utilisation from both these plants. Last year, it was between 60-70 per cent, a company official said.
