Govt not to control steel prices: Paswan

NEW DELHI: The government does not intend to introduce a mechanism to control the prices of steel and iron ore as they are deregulated and are governed by market forces, the Lok Sabha was informed on Monday.

"The prices of iron ore as well as steel are deregulated and are governed by market forces. There is no proposal for introducing price control mechanism," Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan said in a written reply to a question.

In view of sufficient reserves of iron ore there was no proposal to completely ban the export of iron ore, he said in reply to a supplementary query. He pointed out that the total iron ore (haematite and magnetite) production in the country was 22,107.99 million tonnes.

In reply to another query, Minister of State for Steel Akhilesh Das said that SAIL has decided to enter into a strategic partnership with Jaiprakash Associates Limited for jointly producing cement in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh and a Letter of Intent has been issued to them in this connection.

Jaiprakash Associates would have 74 per cent equity in the joint venture while SAIL would hold 26 per cent, Das said.

In reply to a query, Das said the country has exported 1,76,1784 tonnes of steel in the last two fiscals.