SAIL, Essar Steel deny charges of cartelisation

Leading steel manufacturers SAIL and Essar Steel today refuted the charges of 'cartelisation' and 'unfair trade practices', levelled by ancillary steel producers, by attributing steep hike in HR Coil prices to sky-rocketing raw material costs.

"We strongly refute the insinuation that SAIL is party to any cartelisation. We at SAIL decide our own pricing and marketing policy," a SAIL spokesperson said.

He said the prices of coking coal have seen a quantum jump during the financial year 2010-11 from a level of USD 128 per tonne in the beginning of the financial year to USD 330 per tonne prevailing at present.

"To produce one tonne of crude steel we require one tonne of coking coal. It can be seen that prices of coking coal have jumped by two-and-a-half times," he said.