Parliament was informed that the government has not detected any case of cartelisation in the steel sector during last three years.

Steel Minister Beni Prasad Verma said n the Lok Sabha that “The cases of cartelisation fall under purview of the Competition Commission of India under the Competition Act, 2002. No case of cartelisation in steel sector pertaining to last three years has been reported.”

He further said that steel prices in the country have increased by up to 43 per cent between June 2009 and July 2012 amid skyrocketing prices of the raw materials like iron ore and coking coal.

The Minister said that “Despite the increase in the price of critical raw materials like coking coal and iron ore by about 88 per cent and 97 per cent, respectively, during June 2009 to July 2012, the price of steel products like HR—coils and TMT bars have increased by about 43 per cent and 41%, respectively.”

According to the Steel Ministry data, prices of HR—coils and TMT bars have been rising steadily since June 2009 levels of INR 34,289 per tonne and INR 35,479 per tonne. In July this year, prices were hovering at INR 49,050 per tonne for HR—coils and at INR 50,000 per tonne for TMT bars.

Mr Verma said that to check the rising steel prices, the government has taken various measures, including reducing import duty to zero for coking coal, steel melting scrap and steam coal and increasing the export duty to 30% for all grades of iron ore.

Source - PTI

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