CCI to Probe Price Cartelisation by Steel Companies
Steel News | 2021-02-10 21:47:31
The CCI has taken suo moto investigation into the matter, having not received any written complaint.
By Paul Ploumis
SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has announced its decision to launch a probe against several steel companies over alleged cartelisation to increase prices of steel products consistently over the past seven months. The CCI had earlier investigated price cartelisation by cement countries.
The regulatory watchdog will investigate the business strategies of leading steel companies in order to determine whether they have colluded to implement price hikes artificially, after June last year, when the country had imposed anti-dumping duties on imports of coated or plated flat-rolled steel from China, Vietnam and South Korea. The CCI has taken suo moto investigation into the matter, having not received any written complaint. Incidentally, steel end-user industries have been citing unprecedented surge in steel prices, thus making them uncompetitive in domestic as well as overseas markets.
RELATED NEWS:
Steelmakers Hit With Fine by German Cartel Office for Price Fixing Charges
Steel Cartel Probe Leads to Imposition of Hefty Fines on Automakers
Meantime, domestic steel companies blamed the exceptional surge in raw material prices as the reason behind the jump in steel prices. For instance, the iron ore prices have skyrocketed by as much as 135%.
Much in line with the above argument, Seshagiri Rao, Joint Managing Director, JSW Steel had recently said that the domestic steel prices are still at a discount to the landed cost of imports.
