Local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) prices have softened by INR 500/mt ($8/mt) over the past week to the range of around INR 49,000/mt ($803/mt) amid pressure from imports, traders said on Thursday, October 9.
According to a Mumbai-based trader, local steel mills are delaying adjustments of base prices of flat steel despite high inventories at the dealers' end and the significant slowdown in CRC stock movements during the past week.
While steel imports from China particularly of long products have risen sharply, flat product import bookings have been modest simply because traders are already saddled with high stocks, he said. However, the rising price differential between local CRC and imported Chinese CRC is distorting the market, with most traders delaying fresh bookings as they wait for prices to settle, he added.
Market sources have said that the landed price of ex-China CRC CFR Mumbai is at least $120-140/mt cheaper than local CRC.
The import volumes at least for the CRC product segment are still not as high as for other steel products, but the price differential is causing concern in the market considering that local steel mills are not reacting to the import threat and are yet to be aggressive in their CRC pricing strategy to counter import competition, the sources said.
$1= INR 60.99