"The company has raised its flat product prices by up to 4 per cent with effect from September 3," a Tata Steel spokesperson said. There is no increase in long product prices, he added.
Steel prices were hovering at about Rs 30,000 a tonne in recent weeks. However, major players like SAIL and Jindal Steel have since hiked their prices. Flat steel products are primarily used by the white goods and auto industry, while long products are used in the construction industry.
Earlier, on September 2, state-owned steel major SAIL and JSW Steel had increased the price of flat products by Rs 1,000 a tonne on account of a pick-up in demand after the end of the monsoon. SAIL Chairman C S Verma last month said that steel firms will take a call on hiking steel prices in September after analysing the prices of imported steel from countries like China.
Steel prices have remained flat for about past 2-3 months following the gloomy global scenario, which prevented domestic firms from passing on rising input cost pressure to customers. Prices of vital raw materials like iron ore and coking coal in the current quarter have almost doubled from the level of the corresponding period a year ago.
The companies expect demand rising from sectors like automobile and construction. India has an annual production capacity of about 72 million tonnes. SAIL, JSW Steel and Tata Steel are the market leaders in terms of market share.