Divestment: 2 PSUs spotted

The Union steel minister, Mr Virbhadra Singh, on Friday expressed concern over the recent hike in the prices of flat steel products by some companies.

The minister termed the hike as “unjustified” in view that prices of raw materials — iron ore and coking coal — had fallen. “I will give them a friendly advice on this matter,” Mr Singh said on the sidelines of a conference.
The minister’s statement comes in the wake of SAIL and Tata Steel had raised the prices of the flat products this week.

Mr Singh said that the ministry is looking to raise around Rs 15,000 crore from disinvestment. He said that the government has identified two PSUs for stake sale and the government is in the process of finding more PSUs for disinvestment.

The minister said he was seriously considering discouraging iron ore exports from India. “Our first priority should be that all iron ore within the country should be utilised for making steel in the country,” Mr Singh.

India is the world’s third largest iron ore exporter and produced around 220 million tonnes of it in the 2008-09. About half of this was exported, mainly to China.

The minister said that the current situation of low prices of input materials and services should be used to build infrastructure at a low cost.“This will help achieve the twin objectives of short-run gains in terms of employment generation, demand creation and economic revival along with long term gain of sustained economic development,” he said.

He said India’s policy has given a boost to the infrastructure sector.