Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has increased the prices of its products after a gap of four months. This has been done by cutting back on discounts.
Prices for flat products had been increased by Rs.1,000 a tonne across categories, in this manner, a company official said. However, the prices of long products and a category known as PAT (pipes, electricals and tinplates) would remain unchanged, official sources said.
The sources in the company said the prices for longs used mostly in the infrastructural sector and construction were not increased in tune with market sentiment. This segment of the market is ruled by secondary producers, who control nearly 70 per cent of the market. SAIL has about 11 per cent share of this market. The country's largest steel producer has a 24 per cent share of the market for flats, which are used for making automobiles and white goods, among other things.
At least two other steel majors too have increased prices from September 1.
