Local Indian hot rolled coil (HRC) prices have remained stable during the past week at INR 41,500/mt ($644/mt) ex-works amid steady bookings by dealers but uncertainties over the short-term trend, traders said on Monday, April 17.
“HRC prices were holding up after Indian steel mills completed base price revisions early in the month. Transaction activity has remained strong during the past week,” a Mumbai-based trader said.
“However, despite prices remaining unchanged, there is uncertainty in the market regarding the immediate short-term trend. Local HRC prices remained stable because of import protection, the levy of antidumping duty and lower import shipments. But questions still remain regarding fundamentals like the demand uptick which is not considered strong enough to help current price levels to consolidate,” he added.
According to two traders who were interviewed, the market is going through a contradictory phase with some market players feeling that local steel mills could take advantage of import protection to go in for a second round of base price revision this month, whereas other market players feel that HRC prices had moved up too fast since last month and could see a correction with prices moving down marginally by around INR 500/mt ($8/mt) before the end of the current month.
INR 1 = $64.41