Ironically SS-201 grade has been developed by Indian researchers. They had managed to replace the costly nickel used in the manufacture of corrosion-free stainless steel by manganese and other alloys. Although nickel constitutes 8-12 per cent of stainless steel by volume, in value terms it is 50 per cent of the total cost. But the replacement by manganese and other ferro alloys reduces the cost of stainless production for utensil grade by 40 per cent, without compromising on the corrosion and brittlenessproperties. This resulted in a drastic fall in cost of stainless steel production in the last seven years, while selling prices have remained stagnant.

As a result of adulteration Isibars was forced to reduce its production of SS 201 from 900 tonnes a month to less than 300 tonnes per month. Sudhir Kumar Gupta, joint managing director of Isibars says that the drastic reduction in the prices has resulted in the company earning negative margins for the product. Spurious adulterated stainless steel in the market have affected the entire industry.

Even Mukand has reduced the production by more than 40 per cent of 201 grade due to the same problem. Cost of production of this grade is close to Rs 20,000-Rs 23,000 per tonne for Mukand. But adulterated stainless steel is available in the market at the rate of Rs 16,000-17,000 per tonne, which is well below the cost of producing this material.

The beneficiaries have been the small scale producers, who are substituting cheap materials for nickel and manganese inutensil grade. All this has made mockery of 201 grades standard of ISI. As for the innocent users this means upset stomachs and host of other problems, because adulterated steel causes a lot of health problems.