Manufacturers demand steel prices regulator

Ludhiana: City businessmen engaged in the business of manufacturing of engineering goods are demanding setting up of a steel prices regulator for keeping a watch on the fluctuation of rates of the metal due to which they have to suffer huge losses. According to businessmen, some cartels are operating in this trade and are creating artificial fluctuation of rates without any valid reasons.
Giving more information, Vicky Sharma, a sewing machine parts manufacturer, said, “Creation of a steel price regulating department or a making an officer keep a watch on the prices of raw steel material of all kinds has become very critical. At present, there is a turmoil in the markets being spread by members of the steel cartel who are operating in their business like a satta bazar and on daily basis they circulate sms and whatsapp messages containing rates of raw steel material and show fluctuation on daily basis.”
“The entire market has started maintaining their rates according the messages sent by these cartels and the real-time market conditions such as low or high demand of raw material or increase in the cost of production of steel raw material manufacturer nowadays does not have any meaning left. Such a situation is making it difficult to do business as due to artificial fluctuation and huge hike in the rates our cost of production gets very high and we suffer huge losses,” he said
According to Jatinder Chawla, an auto-parts manufacturer based in Shimlapuri, “We are facing a very complex situation these days as the rates of raw steel material sometimes gets costlier by Rs 2-5 per kg just in a span of 10-15 days and we cannot pass on the entire burden on our customers in the same ratio as due to competition in market they will stop buying from us and instead choose other vendors based in other states. So, in order to tackle a situation like this, there is an urgent need of a steel regulator which can fix the rates of raw steel material and take strict action against the people who try to sell the material at higher prices than the one ecided by a regulator.”
According to Dinesh Kalra, president of Ludhiana Business Forums, “Already, there has been huge losses to the engineering product manufactuerers due to the fluctuation in rates of raw steel material and this problem is getting from bad to worse on a daily basis. We request the government to take urgent notice of this issue and ensure setting up of a steel prices regulator.”