India’s Ministry of Steel has warned domestic steel producers to check their runaway steel prices or risk government intervention, a ministry official said on Monday, September 18.
The ministry official said that domestic steel producers would not be permitted to “exploit the country” by pushing up steel prices citing rising input costs. He said that domestic steel companies would need to ensure that steel prices are reined in so that benchmark prices for hot rolled coil remain below INR 40,000/mt ($625/mt) ex-works.
The official said that the steel ministry would be monitoring domestic steel prices and that local steel mills‘ maintain a balance between their own economic viability and interests of downstream users’, failing which the government would intervene.
Declining to elaborate on the options for such market intervention, the ministry said that the government has several tools at its disposal to check runaway prices without distorting the free pricing regime of the steel market.