HR coil imports will not be allowed to sell below the floor price, steel secretary, Ashok Basu said here today. The fixing of floor price comes in wake of reports that cheap imports of HR coils especially from CIS countries was affecting the domestic industry.

"We are also expecting other recommendations of Vasudev commitee to be implemented soon like anti-dumping duty on other products including cold rolled (CR) coil and tin plates", Basu told newspersons.

Basu said financial institutions have agreed in principle to finance the on going steel projects which are at various stages of completion with conditions.

Secretary, who met IDBI Chairman, G P Gupta today, said that FIs have agreed to reschedule the repayment of loan and interest of steel manufacturers in view of the sluggish market conditions.

Steel ministry has alsosuggested deferred payment of interest rates for the rest of financing of steel projects. Basu also suggested that FIs should guarantee on commercial basis for steel companies going for foreign borrowings.

With the floor price setting up by the commerce ministry, steel ministries two long standing demands have come through including abolishing anti-dumping duty on metalurgical coke and imposition of anti-dumping duty on HR coils. The ministry has ruled out any downward revision of demand projections for steel during the ninth plan. The ministry had projected 32 million tonnes demand for steel in the domestic market as additional six million tonnes towards export. Basu said these projections were 100 per cent valid and there was no reason for revising these projections.

Birla joins Tata Steel board

MUMBAI: Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of the Aditya Birla group, has joined the board of the country's largest private sector steel corporation, Tata Steel, as a non-executive director. The 30-year-oldscion and successor to Aditya Birla's legacy joined the premier board with effect from November 19. Tata Steel informed the Bombay Stock Exchange about the same through a notice on Thursday. Birla is the youngest director to take up a position on the august board. The steel giant also informed the stock exchange that LP Singh, a director on the company's board, passed away recently in October. The giant steel corporation also announced that at its meeting held on Thursday, the company's board of directors has, in principle, approved of a proposal to purchase the cold rolling mill unit of Tata SSL Ltd at Tarapur, subject to necessary approvals. The Tata SSL board also met during the day and said that "after evaluating various options", it agreed in principle to the sale of the mill.