Impact of Prices Rise in Steel-Step towards Closing MSME

Ludhiana, December 22, 2016: Sh.Avtar Singh, President, and Sh.Upkar Singh Ahuja, General Secretary, Chamber of Industrial and Commercial Undertakings (CICU) today said that the Hike in Steel Prices affected very badly to MSME units and manufacturing engineering products i.e. auto parts, bicycle and its parts, Sewing Machines, Electrical Machinery, Textile Machinery, Fasteners, Hand Tools and other products by use of the steel. The decision on the demonetization of the currency on 8th Nov, 2016 has already made a dent in the Industrial and Trade sector due to non-availability of cash. The work force which was engaged earlier in the manufacturing sector has also been disturbed and not easily available.

Sh. Avtar Singh also added that Minimum Import Price (MIP), imposed on 173 products in the February 2016 has also affected the engineering industry. The domestic demand has trickledown due to this impact. The Government’s decision “will have a serious debilitating impact on Engineering Exports” which have already declined by 15% in the first nine months of the current fiscal year and will further declined more than 20% due to the facts already explained above.

Sh. Upkar Singh Ahuja, General Secretary CICU said that the rates of the steel are being increased day by day due to monopoly of the major steel companies i.e. JSW Steel, Jindal Steel & Power, Tata Steel, Kalyani Steel, Sail and Bhushan Steel etc. The prices of the steel have been raised 15% to 18% from June’2015 to till date, which has affected the engineering industry in the Punjab as well as in the Country. He also added that from last 3 months steel Industries have already increased their prices to Rs. 5300 per metric ton from their current price and still planning to hike more to Rs. 6000 to Rs. 8000 per metric ton in coming time.

They requested to Prime minister India that immediate steps be taken to control the hike in the steel prices to save the interest of the MSMEs sector. The monopoly of the large industries may not have the lobbying in deciding the price of steel. The win to win mechanism may be adopted for the MSMEs so that they can survive in the global competition.