Industry watchers feel that demand for steel has improved recently and this enabled steel makers to raise price of their products.
It is learnt that there has been a five to seven per cent price hike in both flat and long steel products on a year-on-year basis. Rashtriya Ispat Nigam (RINL) increased rates by Rs 500 per tonne this month when it followed most of the bigger steelmakers who raised prices by up to Rs 1,500 a tonne.
Earlier steel makers were hesitant to raise prices because of low demand for the product. Steel demand growth in the current year has been low at five to six per cent as against the industry expectations of 8-10 per cent.
Although the move has been initiated to protect the profit margins as raw material prices have gone up in the same range, it is a positive sign as earlier there was no confidence in the companies to increase prices.
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