After a brief pause, local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) prices have resumed their upward movement during the past week, increasing by INR 2,000/mt ($30/mt) to INR 45,000/mt ($674/mt) ex-works, due to dealers’ rushing to make fresh bookings ahead of price hike by steel mills and further tightening of supplies, traders said on Tuesday, October 11.
“After taking a short breath for a week, market activity has increased sharply past week as dealers were in hurry to make fresh bookings ahead of steel mills hiking October prices,” a Mumbai based trader said.
“Several market intermediaries are not able to book desired volumes indicating tight supplies which further fuelled the bullish sentiments in the market,” the trader added.
Sources said that there are talks in the market that local CRC prices are breaching the psychological upside barrier of INR 50,000/mt ($751/mt) mark. At least two traders have pointed that such an upside is not unrealistic considering that local CRC prices have gained INR 3,500/mt ($53/mt) over the past one month. Besides, local steel mills are expected to revise base prices for all flat products by at least INR 1,000/mt ($15/mt) over the next seven days, the sources said.
$1 = INR 66.8