NEW DELHI (Commodity Online): Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) has reduced the price of its product used by the white goods and auto industry by Rs 500 per tonne.

The company has further cut flat steel price by Rs 500 a tonne because of softening global trend, SAIL chairman SK Roongta said, but asserted he didn’t see the price falling further.

SAIL recently brought down prices of its flat steel products by Rs 750 to Rs 1,500 a tonne.

After the latest reduction, prices will now be in the range of Rs 1,250 and Rs 1,500 per tonne.

Taking a cue from SAIL, private sector steel maker Tata Steel also reduced prices of its flat steel products.

However, there has been no change in the prices of long steel products.

Meanwhile, AK Steel announced that it will increase base prices for all 200, 300 and 400 series flat rolled stainless steel products by 6% to 9%, depending upon the grade and product form, effective with shipments on January 3rd 2010.

AK Steel said this increase will be achieved through a reduction in the functional discount of two percentage points for cold rolled and hot rolled products. Base prices of automotive exhaust grades will increase by $.04 per pound.

All surcharges for stainless steel products will remain in effect.