Pakistan Steel has raised the prices of hot rolled coil, cold rolled coil, pig iron and other products by Rs 1,200 to Rs 8,400 per ton, sources said.
Pakistan Steel raised the prices of pig iron, hot rolled, cold rolled coil, MS slab, galvanised, copal plate and chequered plate on Wednesday in the wake of increasing demand in the local market and soaring prices of steel products in the international market, sources said.
They said the country''s largest steel producer has raised the price of hot rolled coils by Rs 5,300 per tonne (including tax) on two products from 2.0mm to 2.35mm, while Rs 4700 per tonne increase has been effected on three other products.
After the current increase, average hot rolled coil price has reached new peak of Rs 81,900 per tonne including taxes. The price of prime chequered plates, secondary-A plates and secondary-B plates has increased by Rs 4,400 per tonne to Rs 83,650 per tonne, Rs 81,260 pert tonne and Rs 80,662 per tonne (including taxes), respectively.
Pakistan Steel has raised the price of prime MS slabs and rejected MS slab by Rs 8,394 per tonne, pushing them to new peak of Rs 67,570 per tonne and 64,589 per tonne (including taxes), respectively in the domestic market. Pakistan Steel has jacked up prices of some four MS Thick Plates by Rs 600-5100 per tonne.
With recent increase, the price of MS Thick Plate upto 29mm has touched new peak of Rs 66,322 per tonne, over 29mm upto 49mm Rs 66,900 per tonne, over 29mm upto 64mm Rs 72,800 per tonne (including taxes). The PS has raised the prices of all cold rolled coil categories by Rs 4,720-5,115 per tonne and after the current increase average price of cold rolled price has reached Rs 81,200 per tonne (including taxes).
In addition the prices of all galvanised products have been increased by Rs 3585-7887 per tonne and upto 0.55mm galvanised has touched Rs 95,600 per tonne, while over 1mm upto 1.5mm would be available at Rs 83,300 per tonne. Similarly, the PS has increased the price of pig iron by Rs 1,200 per tonne to Rs 44,225 (including taxes).
Meanwhile, dealers have criticised the increase in the steel prices by Pakistan Steel. They said that PS has not raised the price of billet, which is being sold at Rs 1500 per tonne on ''own money'' in the domestic market.
The prices of the products, which have been raised by the PS, are already available in the market and there was no need for heavy increase in the steel product prices, dealers said. They said that the PS has issued the new price list that has come into force from Wednesday.