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India - Work in foundries drops by 50 per cent due to soaring prices

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HYDERABAD (India) : The city chapter of The Institute of Indian Foundrymen (TIIF) has asked the Centre to ban export of pig iron and ore as it is having a cascading effect on the prices of pig iron and steel scrap used by foundries.

At a press conference here on Tuesday, chapter chairman V. Anand Reddy said work in most of the 200 foundries in the State was down by 50 per cent.

While they were forced to pay exorbitant rates for their raw material comprising pig iron and steel scrap, their clients were not willing to accept castings at higher cost.

TIIF demanded the ban so that pig iron producers could get ore, an action that would ensure pig iron at reasonable prices for foundries, Mr. Anand Reddy said.

He wanted the Central and State governments to leverage the power of ‘Regulatory Authority’ to look into the unreasonable price rise of foundry raw material and help control prices.

Mr. Reddy said the price of pig iron had soared to Rs. 30,000 from Rs. 16,000 in the past six months while the cost of ore went up 12 times from Rs. 500 to Rs. 7,000 in less than a year.

If Centre did not check the prices of raw material, he said it would affect 50,000 employees in Andhra Pradesh alone because foundries would be forced to shut shop.

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