The world's first steel futures were inaugurated on the MCX platform by Tata Sons director JJ Irani by making the first trade in flat steel on Thursday. Later, addressing a gathering of leading industry officials, Mr Irani said steel futures was absolutely essential as the fluctuation in steel prices was very high. "In the last 30 years, I have seen the fluctuation in price is as much as 100-115 per cent in the world market. "It swung from around $160-200 per tonne for HR coils two years back to the current price of around $550 per tonne, the former Tata Steel MD said.

Noting that "prophets of doom have been proved wrong" that the Indian steel industry was a "sunset industry", he said in the last 10 years, steel production has gone up every year.

"India is extremely well placed as far as steel industry is concerned because India has the inherent strength," MR Irani said. Speaking on the occasion, MCX MD Jignesh Shah said he hoped that regulatory authority would very soon allow foreign players to hedge on India commodity exchanges. Forward Markets Commission chairman Kewal Ram said futures in steel was timely. "Price volatility in steel has cascading effect, " Mr Ram said and added that MCX had put in a good risk management system in place.