New Delhi, Feb. 12: A meeting between steel ministry officials and domestic steel manufacturers to discuss a possible rollback of steel prices remained inconclusive today.

After steel makers increased the prices of various products by 8-10 per cent earlier this month, steel minister Ram Vilas Paswan had said a price regulator for the industry was under consideration. This could be seen as a veiled threat to manufacturers to cut prices of their own accord.

“We want to increase per capita consumption of steel and a rise in prices has to be reasonable,” Paswan had said.

Steel makers had cited rising input costs and increasing global steel prices as reasons behind the price hike.

The ministry will review the price hike on February 15. However, steel firms do not see a rollback in prices.

The industry had gone for a partial rollback of steel prices in March 2007 to rein in inflation at the government’s behest.

The government relaxed its control over the steel business in 1991, allowing manufacturers to set their own prices within the country and outside.