MUMBAI (Commodity Online): Following hints from all firms that steel prices are set to shoot up in 2010, Tata Steel also announced that it may hike the prices of steel in the coming year.

“What has gone down has to go up,” Tata Steel managing director HM Nerurkar said at a press conference at the CII-Suresh Neotia Centre of Excellence for Leadership when as ked about his view on steel prices after the PSU steel maker SAIL hinted at price revision from January.

Several steel makers in the country are expected to revise prices upwards from early next year to cash in on the rise in demand. SAIL, private players Bhushan Steel, Essar, JSW Steel had said they were likely to hike prices of their products by January 2010 as the demand was picking up.

Steel prices had gone down globally by $100-$150 a tonne to $400 per tonne during the past few months on account of influx of cheap imports from China. But in the past month prices have gone up worldwide by $50 on good demand.

Nerurkar said Tata Steel would leverage the capabilities of Corus in construction space back in India. He said the European steel market was shrinking and it needed to make profits from lower production.

He also expects more orders from European Union in the construction space after it got two orders from Europe recently including one from France.

Speaking about challenges for leadership, he mentioned that one among the challenges for Tata Steel is managing the talent as some 25-30 per cent of the managers will retire from the company in the next 2-3 years.