India. Steel companies accused of cartelisation

India. Steel companies accused of cartelisation. Ancillary steel product manufacturers on Thursday accused country's top primary steelmakers — Steel Authority of India (SAIL), Essar Steel, Tata Steel and JSW — of entering into cartelisation while determining rates of hot rolled coils, the basic raw material used for manufacturing pipes used in housing and agriculture sectors. The small and medium steel product manufacturers like Jindal Pipes and Surya Group have alleged that companies like SAIL have increased price of HR coils seven times in the last 40 days by nearly 30% completely undermining the established market forces which play key role in rates of commodities. "There has not been any cost-push in the last two months. Steel companies led by SAIL have been fixing rates by entering into cartelisation. The four steel companies -- SAIL, Tata Steel, Essar and Jindal have adopted unethical trade practice," Surya group chairman JP Agarwal said. The secondary steel product makers under the banner of Federation of Indian Industries (FII) also said that the situation had added to the inflation woes of the government and the general public.