Merchant power rates to hover around Rs 4-4.25/unit: JSPL

Demand for steel has weakened, says Sushil Maroo, director and group CFO of JSPL. However, he said prices are stable because of low supply.

In an interview with CNBC-TV18, Maroo said that high input costs have impacted margins in the steel business. In the power sector, Maroo expects merchant power rates to hold up with a positive bias. He expects merchant power rates to hover around Rs 4-4.25 per unit. Below is the edited transcript of Maroo's interview with Udayan Mukherjee and Mitali Mukherjee of CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying video. Q: Before talking about earnings I guess your promoter was there at that meeting as well. What were the key takeaways with the meeting with the Prime Minister? A: Yes, Mr. Naveen Jindal was also there along with other industrialists and the problems which the power industry is facing were discussed and the government made some promises also. It was a long meeting whole day with various ministers and the Prime Minister finally; you will come to know lot of things from the association. But I feel that in this meeting at least all the problems which power sector is facing in the country were talked about and solutions were explored. Q: Aside from potential solutions, was there any reassurance from the government that they would not look to impose a tariff cap on captive coal base plant. There was a fear that might happen at some point last month and company such as yours would be most directly and negatively affected by it? A: We have not heard much about it and I don