Iron ore duty hike will temper steel price rise - Mr Sajjan Jindal

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 By BL

Mr Sajjan Jindal vice chairman and MD of JSW Steel said that though coking coal and iron prices are on a high, any further hike in steel prices could hurt demand in the country and that the budget proposal to increase the iron ore export duty to 20% should alleviate some concerns and lead to drop in prices of around INR 1,000 a tonne in the next two three months.

Mr Jindal said that “With the economy and manufacturing sectors growing rapidly, demand is bound to grow, but the ability to absorb further price hikes is limited and prices will rise in the short-term. But the Government has done a very good thing by proposing the export duty on iron ore at 20%. It will increase availability of iron ore for domestic companies and prices could come down by as much as INR 1,000 a tonne over the next 2 to 3 months.”