Local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) prices have remained stable over the past week amid muted trade activity and sluggish demand from industrial users led by automobile manufacturers, forcing some re-rollers to push sales at discounts to avoid risks of year-end inventory increases.
Sources said that benchmark 0.9 mm CRC prices have remained unchanged at INR 61,700/mt ($742/mt) ex-Mumbai and are stable at INR 62,450/mt ($752/m) ex-Chennai in the south.
However, a number of market participants confirmed that re-rollers have been pushing volumes into merchant sales at discounts around INR 2,000/mt ($24/mt). These are volumes which were not been lifted under long-term supply agreements with large industrial users.
“Year-end considerations, risks of letting inventories rise, tight liquidity both at trade and user levels, and the conservative demand forecast from sectors like automobile and specialized packaging manufacturers are all negatively weighing on CRC prices,” a Mumbai-based distributor said.
“Large automobile companies are continuing with the recent trend of increasing ex-South Korea sourcing and are deferring offtakes from local re-rollers, and the latter are pushing higher volumes for domestic sales, increasing supply-side pressures on prices.”
$1 = INR 83.10