Pakistan Steel raises prices of major products

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

By Moonis Ahmed

KARACHI: Pakistan Steel has made a fresh increase in prices of its major products including hot rolled, cold rolled, galvanised steel and billets ranging between Rs 2,000-4,000, following the rise in international market, market sources told Daily Times.

On March 13, it had increased the rate of HR coil, CR coil, galvanised and other products between Rs 1,000-Rs 4,000, to reach Rs 59,700 per tonne, Rs 71,300 and Rs 76,800 per tonne respectively. Furthermore, the prices of billets had witnessed a substantial increase of Rs 4000 to reach Rs 52,500 as against Rs 48,000 previously.

According to the sources, PS has raised prices of hot rolled products by Rs 4,000 to reach Rs 63,700 as compared to Rs 59,700 previously; on cold rolled products, prices have been raised by Rs 4,000 to reach Rs 75,300 from Rs 71,300 previously. Galvanised steel rates have gone up to Rs 80,800 from Rs 76,800, showing an increase of Rs 4,000.

Billets prices have also witnessed an increase of Rs 3,000 as the prices stand at Rs 49,000 as compared to Rs 46,000 previously. Whereas, Prices of thick plate have also been raised by Rs 4,000.

Sources said because of the continuous price hike in international steel prices, PS has also raised its prices, as there is almost a $100 per tonne difference on all major steel products in international market.

Hot rolled and cold rolled prices after witnessing an upsurge of $100 per tonne in just last 15 days and now stand at $670-$690 hot rolled and $800-$805 cold rolled, they said.

During the last couple of months, countries including India, Bangladesh and Turkey have bought a huge quantity of steel from international market, and a further increase in steel prices in international and local market is expected during couple of months.

Apparently, this global phenomenon has forced steel mills all over the world to substantially increase prices of all products. They further said that customs has increased the ITP on different steel products for local importers that is also said to have a net price impact of Rs 2500-4000. They said that the increase would add around Rs 2,500-4,000 on the prices of various steel products in domestic markets that might hit demand and sales. This is pertinent to mention that PS made a loss of Rs 22.1 billion in 2008-09 against a pre-tax-profit of Rs 3.6 billion in the previous fiscal year, whereas, the company has faced losses of more than Rs 6 billion in six months of the current fiscal year.