Local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) prices have remained stable during the past week at INR 41,800/mt ($554/mt) ex-works with a slight improvement in bookings received by large steel mills with a few automobile and consumer durable manufacturers starting to resume operations in select regions like western and southern India, sources said on Monday, May 11.
With Indian’s largest passenger car manufacturer Maruti Suzuki and South Korean consumer durable manufacturers starting production, CRC bookings which had fallen to almost zero last month, have started showing signs of picking up but end-users have remained cautious and have kept volume bookings at very low levels.
Integrated steel mills have been keeping base prices unchanged more because they have reduced conversion in rolling mills to the bare minimum rather than because of demand support, the traders said.
“The CRC market is demand-driven. There is a huge demand contraction in end-use industries like automobile and consumer durables. Hence, we do not see a sharp revival in offtake of CRC in the medium and long term,” a manager at one of the major steel mills said.
“There is a slight improvement in bookings received over the past few days as select industries are gearing up to resume operations. But the volumes of bookings is unlikely to see a large revival as most industries are suffering a demand contraction and as raw material stocking will be very cautious. Under the circumstances, steel mills too will be slow in increasing rolling mills’ output,” he added.
$1 = INR 75.50
