The Pakistan Steel (PS) on Tuesday flayed the recent increase in steel prices in the domestic market. In a statement issued by PS said: "In view of stagnation and sudden crash in the international steel market in the first half of the current fiscal year, the prices of steel nose-dived world over and this encouraged dumping of standard steel products in Pakistan at very low prices."
"During this period, numerous L/Cs for hundreds of thousands tonnes of long and flat products were opened, while under invoicing and misuse of exemption of withholding tax concession offered to the consumers by the government further aggravated the situation," it added.
The statement said to discourage these wrong practices the PS drastically reduced its prices of both long and flat products from 19.20 percent to 25 percent (approx. Rs 5,516 to Rs 9,356 per ton) in a span of few months. "This reversed the trend and buyers quickly got re-diverted to the PS which made it possible for the corporation to make a small upward correction (Rs 1,000 per ton) of about 3.5 percent and yet recorded unprecedented all-time high sales of Rs 6.6 billion in March and April," the statement elaborated.-PR