Mittal Steel SA to meet government over pricing

Mittal Steel South Africa will reportedly meet the South African government to discuss domestic pricing. "We will meet with Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa to agree on the way forward on domestic steel pricing," said M Chugh, the CEO of Mittal Steel South Africa. As reported by SteelOrbis last week, South Africa's Trade and Industry Minister Mandisi Mpahlwa on March 29, 2006, lifted a 5 percent import duty on primary carbon and stainless steel products following the complaints from domestic mining companies. The South African government has been negotiating with Mittal Steel South Africa since 2004 on how Mittal could come up with a new price model to reduce the prices of its various steel products. Mittal Steel SA CEO indicated that the company had not hiked steel prices since it had taken control of Iscor in mid-2004 and had even reduced steel prices in February and August 2005. He said after Mittal had taken over Iscor, there had been sharp increases in commodity prices and the company had taken several measures, despite there being no formal arrangement over domestic steel pricing. However, domestic mining companies complained about domestic pricing of Mittal since they buy local products at the prices they would pay if they were to import the products.