Steel Decontrol Misplaced Fears

Steel Decontrol: Misplaced Fears Jairaj Kapadia ARE steel producers at fault in announcing, as has been said 'without a notice', a price hike of some 20 per cent from the week started May 18? With that, it is argued, the producers have more than made up for the four-month long abstinence they observed after steel was decontrolled this year, When steel was decontrolled on January 17, the producers were said to have agreed with the government not to resort to a price rise immediately. Did steel producers have a choice not to take recourse to raising prices? This is the moot point. Both Tata Iron and Steel in the private The Week's Companies sector and Steel Authority of India in the public sector have announced their increases, the former by Rs 1,800 per tonne (an average of 18 per cent for its products) and the latter by Rs 1,600 per tonne (15 per cent average), SAIL followed TISCO within just one day, while Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (Vizag Steel) is expected to follow suit.