Local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) prices have remained stable although most of the limited trades were done at discounts mostly by rerollers amid sharply reduced bookings by end-users.
Sources said that benchmark 0.9 mm CRC prices are stable at INR 61,700/mt ($743/mt) ex-Mumbai and are unchanged at INR 62,450/mt ($752/mt) ex-Chennai in the south.
However, discounted sales price of re-rollers have been heard at INR 59,000-60,000/mt ($711-722/mt) reacting to rising inventories as large users like in automobile manufacturing have continued to defer lifting stocks as per schedule under long-term supply contracts, forcing re-rollers to offload stocks in merchant sales.
“End-users are only making bookings for urgent requirements. Industrials are unwilling to carry large stocks of inputs to avoid locking up liquidity in the fiscal year-end period. We expect prices to remain range-bound and only discounted sales effected by a section of CRC producers,” a Mumbai-based distributor told SteelOrbis.
“All eyes are now on how local mills react to the prolonged slowdown in determining March base prices. A small hike cannot be ruled out with mills citing input cost increases, further aggravating the bearish market conditions,” he added.
$1 = INR 83.00