Companies set to raise prices of steel products next week

Mumbai, Ta. 28 August 2020, Friday

Indian steel companies have decided to hike prices of their products from September on rising production costs and rising international prices. The decision to hike the price from September has been taken keeping in view the current gap between the domestic and international prices of steel, which is 4 to 5 per cent, an official of a steel company said. However, he declined to say how much the price hike would be.

Iron ore prices are at a three-year high. International steel prices have also gone up in August. According to steel market sources, prices have been hovering in the range of Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 per tonne since September.

Demand for steel is rising worldwide and average August sales were reported to be at the previous level of Corona. As a result, steel companies are considering raising prices, the sources added. According to the Joint Plant Committee, the exports of semi-finished steel in the first four months of the current financial year have surpassed the total export volume of the previous financial year.

Exports of finished steel from April to July stood at fifty per cent over the entire financial year. Demand for steel is also on the rise as countries around the world emerge from the lockdown. However, most of the demand seems to have come from China.

In July, China's crude steel production stood at 25 million tonnes, up 9.10 per cent from July last year. In Japan, steel production fell by 2.50%.

Speaking of India, the level of capacity utilization is increasing on a monthly basis. The level of capacity utilization of the steel industry, which had come down to 8 per cent in April, rose to 5 per cent in July. But it is still lower than last year's average of 7%.