Local Indian hot rolled coil (HRC) prices have come under downward pressure, declining by INR 800/mt ($12/mt) over the past week to INR 33,600/mt ($503/mt) ex-works as the recent revival in sentiment due to imposition of import protection fizzled out and pressures surfaced from the sharp slowdown in stock movements at dealers, traders said on Tuesday, August 16.
“Almost half the gains recorded early in the month soon after the imposition of the antidumping duty have been wiped out during the past week. The market has come round to the fact that import protection is no solution to the fundamental demand weakness in user industries,” a Mumbai-based trader said.
“Poor sentiments have been aggravated with reports of large inventory buildups both at local steel mills and traders and market reports that the former are unlikely to adjust base prices in a hurry,” the trader added.
However, on the contrary, according to one trader, two large domestic mills have reportedly increased flat product prices by around INR 500/mt ($7/mt), but this could not be confirmed by other large traders nor has any formal pricing announcement been made by the mills.
Market sources said that any possible across-the-board hike in flat product prices by more mills would worsen the situation as regards sentiment and volumes in the market and could trigger a resumption of discounting by market intermediaries with the aim of controling inventories.
$1= INR 66.78