Mumbai: Major steel producers in the country, including SAIL, Tata Steel, JSW Steel, Ispat Industries and Essar Steel, have agreed to bring down prices of hot rolled coils by Rs4,000 a tonne to help fight inflation.

This was announced by steel industry officials after a meeting with steel secretary Raghav Sharan Pandey in New Delhi.

Steel industry representatives who met the steel secretary included Tata Steel managing director B Muthuraman, JSW steel vice chairman and managing director Sajjan Jindal, SAIL chairman Sushil Kumar Roongta, Ispat Industries managing director Vinod Kumar Mittal and Essar Steel chief Shashi Ruia. 

The delegation was also expected to meet prime minister Manmohan Singh later in the day to discuss the issue of export duties, among others.

Steel prices have risen by a whopping 49 per cent during the past one year, forcing the government to impose export duty on steel products amidst increasing demand-supply mismatch.

The government had charged the steel industry with cartelisation after they raised prices of the metal in tandem.

Leading steel makers who formed an umbrella body, the Indian Steel Alliance (ISA),  also dissolved it amid wider criticism that the industry was indulging in cartelisation.

The ISA had, in fact, been campaigning against government's moves to impost export duty and set up a regulator for the industry.

The government, meanwhile, clarified  there was no proposal to roll back export duty on steel. Reports in a section of the press had said the government was considering a partial rollback on the proposed export duty on certain steel products.

Some of the steel producers engaged in the manufacturing of value added steel products have represented that export duty on cold rolled, galvanized and coated sheets as well as pipes and tubes - the input material of which is procured through import of hot rolled coils under the Advance Licensing Scheme - should be exempted from the purview of the proposed export duty.

This matter has been taken up with the department of revenue for consideration, government clarified in the press note.