Price increases led by SAIL are expected for this month
According to recent market reports, steel companies in India are expected to effect a second price hike within this month, relying on increasing input costs. On this account, it seems like the government's interference by the beginning of 2004 to the import duties and special additional duty in terms of reduction will not hold steel companies back from further price hikes. It is stated that Steel Authority of India (SAIL) is in preparation to improve prices of its long and flat products any time by Rupees 500 and Rs 1'500 respectively and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL) is expected to follow SAIL in two-three weeks. It is also rumored that Ispat Industries is also among price increasing companies. In case these speculations turn out to be true, total rise in steel products to affect steel consumers is determined to be almost Rs 900-1'000 for longs and around Rs 1'750-1'800 for flats. On other hand, traders mention a steel shortage problem in India which is thought to be due to high domestic demand from the public sector for highway projects. Another comment for the problem is that steel companies shifted their sales from domestic market to markets abroad.