Local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) trade prices have continued to indicate sharp declines amid reports of weakening industrial production growth, trade channels halting fresh bookings for year-end considerations, and end-users cautious in building up raw material inventories for the last quarter, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Monday, December 19.
Indian benchmark 0.9mm CRC trade prices have lost INR 900/mt ($11/mt) to INR 59,400/mt ($717/mt) ex-Mumbai and are down INR 1,000/mt ($12/mt) to INR 58,250/mt ($704/mt) ex-Chennai in the south.
According to a distributor, end-users like automobile manufacturers have all announced significant increases in prices of passenger cars across all categories and higher prices are expected to impact sales growth, and hence auto companies have been cautious in restocking raw materials for the January-March quarter, leading to a slowdown in stock movement.
The rising interest rates have increased the cost of consumer financing, which in turn has impacted sales of both consumer durables and automobiles and, coupled with the contraction in industrial production growth rates, will continue to put pressure on CRC prices.
A section of the market, however, speculated a January base price increase by mills, which could further contribute to ta slowdown in stock movements both in the trade and end-user segments of the market.
$1 = INR 82.80
