Steel industry body seeks date with CM to discuss market crisis

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Aug 14:

Representatives of Indian Steel Association (ISA) have written to V Karthikeya Pandian, Private Secretary of Odisha Chief Minister, seeking an appointment between August 17 and 20 to discuss the current market crisis being faced by the steel industry.

The letter explains that the steel industry of the country is going through a crisis because of steep price hike in raw material and associated costs. The condition of steel units in Odisha is no different. Excessive transportation and associated costs make the price of steel made in Odisha quite high.

While the steel imported from China costs Rs 22,000 a tonne, the steel made in Odisha costs Rs 28,000 a tonne. The high difference has led to less demand for local steel and resulted in lesser productivity.

At a time when there is almost no hope left for POSCO, other players might also be forced to shut down their plants if the condition persists. The industry takes care of the livelihood of thousands of families and the state needs to intervene to bring about a change in fortune of these companies, pointed out the letter.

The delegation of ISA that plans to meet the Chief Minister includes Managing Director of Tata Steel T.V. Narendran, Bhusan Steel’s Neeraj Singhal, Bhusan Steel and Power’s Sanjay Singhal, Essar Group’s Prashant Ruia and Jindal Steel and Power Chairman Naveen Jindal.

It may be noted that with Odisha’s many mineral based industries facing bottlenecks, a delegation of ISA had earlier met Chief Secretary GC Pati onJune 4 and had urged the state government to solve the problems faced by the industry. However, no changes were noticed in the ground conditions.