Sugar Mills Likely To Spend 60-Pc More To Keep Plants Well-Oiled - July 7, 2008

New Delhi: Presently sugar mills are facing a steep rise in the off-season maintenance and repair cost. This cost has shot up by 40-60 per cent for different sugar mills owing to a spurt in steel and iron prices.

It is likely to shoot up to Rs 8 crore this time, said the source. Flat steel product prices have gone up by 17 to 24 per cent since April 2007 while long products like bars and rounds have appreciated 50 to 60 per cent over the same period. Generally, sugar mills run between October to April every year, which is the crushing period and are shut during rest of the year.

After the crushing comes to an end, mills need to undergo repair in order to resume crushing in the next season. The usual increase every year used to be in the range of 8-10 per cent. The company spent Rs 9 crore on maintenance of its 3 mills last year. It expects this to go up to about Rs 12 crore this year.

Govt To Take Measures To Counter Steel Prices

NEW DELHI: The government will take adequate measures to counter spiraling steel prices after consulting steel exporters, said a top official of Steel Ministry.

Steel Ministry Secretary Raghav sharan Pandey today said that the government would ask steel exporters to formulate tactics to counter the prices. “They have to do more to contain prices” he added. .

The government has withdrawn temporally the Duty Entitlement Pass Book Scheme (DEPB), on Wednesday.

Pointing out that rising steel prices and its inputs, particularly iron ore and coking coal, remain a matter of concern, he said more steps would have to be taken by the industry and government to contain spiraling prices of the alloy. DEPB benefits for steel exporters are slated to end on Monday next.

Suspension of export subsidy available to steel companies under DEPB would fetch the government about Rs 600 crore and go a long way to contain prices and bridge demand-supply mismatch in the sector, Pandey said