Steel ind worries over coking coal price
Coking coal alone in steel making is `30,000 per tonne, which works to about 40-45% of the production cost
Coal production rose 8.2% in Aug to 58.33 mn tonnes
New Delhi: Industry body ISA has sought the government's immediate intervention to check coking coal price, which has grown three-fold to around $450 a tonne.
"Coking coal price is something, which is impacting the industry drastically and the production cost is impacted, affecting the steel prices," Alok Sahay, Secretary-General of Indian Steel Association, said during an interaction with PTI.
Indian Steel Association (ISA) represents the domestic steel industry. Explaining the situation, Sahay said the price of coking coal used to be in the range of $120-130 per tonne around a year back. In March 2022, coking coal prices had peaked at about $670 per tonne, he added. At the current price range, the industry expert said, the cost of coking coal alone in steel making is around Rs28,000 to Rs30,000 per tonne, which works to about 40-45 per cent of the production cost. Besides, there are other input materials like iron ore, ferroalloys, logistics, fuel costs and other fixed costs.
Sahay further noted that when crude oil prices go up, prices of petrol and diesel also go up, impacting the entire supply chain. Similarly, steel prices also rise in line with increasing coking coal rates. However, ISA has been apprising the government since February 2022 to take a note of coking coal prices as the association is of the view that "the price needs to be checked so that the cost of steel production can be reduced".
