Local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) prices remained stable amid negligible trade activity for year-end consideration, bearish demand outlook from end users and absence of any signals from mills on January base price, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Monday, December 25.
Indian benchmark 0.9 mm CRC price was unchanged at INR 62,500/mt ($751/mt) ex-Mumbai and stable at INR 63,750/mt ($766/mt) ex-Chennai in the south.
Market sources said that large end user industries like automobile are expecting a slowdown in sales growth during the last quarter of fiscal year (January-March) as most have announced a price increase effective January and slower sales will lead to fall in raw material requirement.
“Both traders and re-rollers are carrying sufficient stocks and the slow movement of material in the market may prompt some large mills to adjust base price next month,” a Mumbai based distributor said.
“We hear that some southern India based automobile companies have booked ex-South Korea CRC volumes reported at discounts of 10-15 percent to current trade local price. If the trend continues and volume of imports increase over the next few weeks it will bring in incremental pressure on the domestic market,” he said.
$1= INR 83.20