Mr. B Muthuraman, vice chairman of Tata Steel, said in the Mohan Kumaramangalam Memorial Lecture at the Administrative Staff College of India that the steel industry is growing at a healthy rate and it is hopeful of passing on the recent price hike by iron ore companies to its clients.

Tata steel posted a flat growth during April to June on the sales at 1.39 million tons due to the sluggish domestic demand and excessive imports of hot rolled coils from China.

However, the demand for both in the domestic and international markets, particularly in the US and UK, was growing.

Recently state-run NMDC Limited just increased the prices of iron ore by Rs 300-350/ton and indicated that this would be revised on a quarterly-basis.