The local Indian rebar market has remained on a downtrend, but the pace of the fall in trade-level prices has eased a little, although this has been attributed to low trading and the festival holidays, and opinions on the outlook remain sharply divided, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Tuesday, November 14.
Indian trade rebar prices have fallen by INR 300/mt ($4/mt) to INR 49,000/mt ($588/mt) ex-Mumbai and are down INR 200/mt ($2/mt) to INR 49,300/mt ($592/mt) ex-Chennai in the south.
Rebar trade prices have lost INR 600/mt ($7/mt) to INR 44,600/mt ($535/mt) ex-Raipur and have moved against the overall trend to gain INR 700/mt ($8/mt) to INR 44,700/mt ($537/mt) ex-Durgapur in the east.
A sharp division on the outlook has prevailed among market participants. A section of traders maintains its bearish outlook based on weak bookings seen from retail buyers among small and medium-size real estate developers in tier I and II cities. However, others attribute the low trade activity to the festival season and said the market is near a bottom after consecutive weeks of declines and a recovery is imminent once full business activity resumes later in the week.
Induction furnace operators are signaling a price increase on the back of the rise in fuel and other energy costs. “We will have to increase ex-mill prices later in November or early next month. We do not think there will be much market resistance as supplies from mill-to-market are not too high. Retail sales can be expected to remain soft but large industrial buyers and projects will commence tender-based procurements which will support the market,” a source at Shyam Steel Limited, eastern India’s largest rebar producer, said.
$1 = INR 80.30