According to a Mumbai-based trader, while one section of the market has anticipated a February price adjustment in view of the slowdown in HRC volume off-take, another section feels that local steel mills will continue to defer such a decision expecting the Indian government to hike basic import duties to 10 percent from 7.5 percent at present.
The trader said that short-term uncertainties regarding the pricing of local HRC and import tariffs resulted in a further fall in transactions volumes as neither dealers not actual users were inclined to conclude fresh deals to build up their stocks.
Market sources said that, while ex-China import HRC offers have moved down a further $10/mt over the past week to the range of around $440-450/mt CFR Mumbai and while the appreciation of the Indian currency against the dollar has made imports cheaper than earlier in the month, transactions have remained restricted due to expectations of import duty changes in the government's federal budget on February 28.
$1 = INR 61.44