NEW DELHI: Four vital Indian steelmakers – Tata Metal, JSW Metal and convey-breeze SAIL and RINL – disclosed their pricing plans to competitors and coordinated production cuts to decrease provides, an antitrust investigation document viewed by Reuters reveals.
In essentially the most excessive-profile antitrust case interesting India’s steel sector, an investigation by the Opponents Rate of India came throughout 28 companies colluded on steel costs, that implies they might maybe face hefty fines, Reuters reported completely on January 6.
Furthermore Read: India probe finds Tata Metal, JSW Metal, SAIL breached antitrust laws
The investigation document into the four vital companies that has not been made public reveals the commission reviewed dozens of WhatsApp chats, including from groups named “Friends of Steel”, “Tycoons” and “Steel Live Market” that maintain been seized one day of 2022 industry raids. It analysed pricing adjustments, sales and production patterns.
Tata Metal, JSW Metal and convey-breeze Metal Authority of India Restricted, or SAIL, and Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Restricted, or RINL colluded one day of 2018-2023, the document says.
“There is enough circumstantial evidence … of concerted efforts by SAIL, RINL, JSW and Tata Steel,” the commission document, drafted in April 2025, stated.
The four companies “were influencing the market with the sensitive price information in advance,” it stated.
Consultancy BigMint estimates the companies chronicle for 44.4% of India’s steel market.
TATA STEEL ‘CATEGORICALLY DENIES ANY WRONGDOING’
Tata Metal in an announcement to Reuters stated it “categorically denies any wrongdoing” and that it determines its costs independently in step with prevailing market stipulations and varied components.
It added this might maybe well put up its detailed responses to the competition commission.
JSW, SAIL and RINL did not answer to requests for comment from Reuters. Their executives denied wrongdoing one day of the investigation, the document stated.
The competition commission, which would not create any cartel case particulars public in step with its solutions, also did not reply.
WHATSAPP CHATS AND STEEL BAR TYCOONS
The steel case started in 2021 and the companies maintain been in October asked to put up their financial particulars – most commonly asked for penalty calculations – and portion any last objections.
Senior officers on the commission are reviewing the findings. They’ve powers to impose fines, or overturn investigation findings.
Tata, JSW, SAIL and RINL weren’t raided within the 2022 operation, nevertheless many smaller companies and industry groups maintain been.
India’s competition commission retrieved chats from the phones of assorted companies’ executives that referred to the pricing plans of JSW, Tata, SAIL and RINL.
The document made no point out of any message being written by the four companies’ executives, nevertheless stated the investigators correlated data within the chats with company’s precise tag adjustments, and came throughout them to be in synchrony.
One message in 2022 was posted in a community called “TMT TYCOONS” – TMT refers to steel bars previous in constructing. It stated: “TODAY SAIL INCREASED Rs. 1000pmt in HR COIL/FLAT products. As per close sources, all primary producers are likely to increase prices.”
One other message from 2020 read: “All main producers like jsw, tata … and sail planning to increase TMT price by 1500 to 2000 pmt from 1st Nov.”
PRESENTATIONS AND ‘CLEAR-CUT CORROBORATION’
India is the world’s 2d-largest producer of inaccurate steel, and quiz for the alloy has risen as infrastructure spending has elevated within the immediate-increasing vital financial system.
The competition commission has held JSW’s billionaire Managing Director Sajjan Jindal, Tata Metal CEO T.V. Narendran, four feeble SAIL chairpersons and three feeble ones of RINL responsible for tag collusion, as Reuters reported earlier this month.
About a of RINL’s internal government presentations pointed to the alleged collusion by the four players, the document confirmed.
An RINL presentation to a government committee confirmed that for every month between 2018-19 and 2022-23 it “submitted market prices of TMT bars of SAIL, TATA and JSW for arriving (at) the selling price of TMT bars by RINL.”
Extra, the commission document came throughout that not not up to in 2020-21 there was a “controlled reduction in production by Tata, JSW, SAIL and RINL to the tune of 16% to 22%”.
One particular RINL presentation to a government committee in 2020 confirmed that it internally renowned there maintain been “production cuts by manufacturers”.
“These facts (are) tantamount to clear-cut corroboration/admission of allegation of production cuts by the said big steel manufacturers,” the document stated.
