Paswan warns steel companies on prices

Union minister for steel, chemicals and fertilisers, Ram Vilas Paswan, has warned that a regulatory authority might be set up for the steel sector if steel companies act 'irrationally' on the issue of price and riased them.

Referring to the recent surge in price of steel, the minister said government had a moral responsibility to protect the interest of consumers of the steel sector. However, he appreciated the cut in prices announced by Tata Steel.

Paswan said the government was not satisfied with the current level of production of steel in India, at 36 million tonne per annum (mtpa).

The steel minister said the government had endorsed a plan to raise steel production in India to 100mtpa by 2020. This would require an investment of Rs 29,000 crore, he pointed out.

Paswan said the domestic steel sector had been facing an acute shortage of coking coal. Supplies at the present level were only about half of the requirement. The minister said domestic production of coking coal was of the order of four million tonnes.

To meet the shortage, the country imported nine million tonne of coking coal per annum.

The government was backing plans to form joint ventures with coking coal companies in Australia, China and USA, to secure supplies, he said.