Times Of India reported that days after blaming Steel Authority of India officials for short supply of steel raw material, city businessmen have slammed the Union government for failing to bring down prices of the raw material, which have been on a rise for the past few months. The businessmen have warned the government that if steel prices were not brought down, they would suffer heavy losses on account of a hike in their cost of production.

According to Upkar Singh Ahuja, president of Chamber of Industrial and Commercial Undertakings prices of steel raw material of every kind including round, TMT, steel bar, and pig iron have seen an incessant increase without any reason. He said that "Steel ministry and Union government have failed miserably to address our issue, which has snowballed into a major problem for us. If the government further fails to act against the steel cartel responsible for the artificial increase in prices, it is certain that local micro, small, and medium enterprises of the city and state will suffer huge losses."

According to Varinder Sharma, a scooter part manufacturer from the city, prices of steel raw material of every type have shot up for the past three months. He said: "In spite of our repeated representation to the steel ministry, no steps have been taken by the ministry. This is a clear-cut case of cartelization and artificial increase in prices, which is hitting our industry very badly, as our cost of production has shot up by 15-20% already. But we are unable to increase the rates of our end products as there is a huge slump in the market. If the steel ministry does not wake up even now, thousands of units dependent on steel raw material will have to shut down."