Pakistan Steel (PS) on Friday raised its billets prices by Rs 1,000 per ton due to rising raw material and steel prices on international front, market sources said. With this upsurge, the prices of PS billets product have reached Rs 32,800 (including sales tax) from previous Rs 31,800 (including sales tax).
Official sources said that billets price increase was, in fact, due for the last few weeks because international steel prices escalated by $40 per ton or Rs 2500 per ton during last two months.
"The other reason behind PS price rise was scarcity of raw material in the world market," sources said, and added that zinc has become much costlier during last two months.
"The prices of iron ore, one of the basic raw materials used for steel making, have also jumped by 19 percent during a short time and this pushed the management to revise the billet prices upward," they said. Last week, the management of Pakistan Steel had raised its galvanised steel products prices by Rs 1500 per ton (of 1.2 mm or above thickness) as well due to similar reasons.
The management has claimed that PS billets sales would register a growth of 1.5 percent to 2 percent despite the price hike. The current hike is the third in billet product prices by the mills management during last five months.