NEW DELHI (Commodity Online): India’s largest steel maker SAIL said steel prices are unlikely to go up in November.

SK Roongta, chairman, SAIL, told mediapersons that let’s wait and see what happens in November, but it is unlikely that steel prices would go up.

Meanwhile, minister of steel Virbhadra Singh urged the industry to let steel be available at affordable prices in order to boost consumption in the semi-urban and rural areas.

One of the major reasons for the low per capita steel consumption is the lack of focus on vast rural sectors. For steel to be acceptable, in preference to other replacements, the common man must find that it is affordable and is cost effective. In this regard, the stability of price of steel in the market plays an important role, steel producers must keep this aspect in mind, Singh said.

The minister also announced the decision to launch a nationwide survey on rural steel consumption and demand to correctly assess the rural steel consumption. As per the last survey carried out five-six years ago, the per capita steel consumption in rural sector used to be two kg per annum. Though there has been some improvement, there is an urgent need for a large scale improvement in rural steel consumption.

The new survey will be conducted by the joint plant committee and cover nearly 300 districts and 1,500 villages.

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