Local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) prices, base and tradable, have been maintained unchanged during the past week amid sustained thin trading conditions and stray reports of discounted sales by standalone re-rolling mills, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Monday, May 31.
Sources said that base CRC prices have been maintained at INR 80,000-81,000/mt ($1,104-1,118/mt) ex-works and tradable prices in the range of INR 82,000-83,000/mt ($1132-1146/mt) ex-Mumbai.
According to the sources, at least one Maharashtra-based re-rolling mill reported accepting bookings for small volumes at discounts of two to three percent over the traded price to keep pushing volumes into the market and check any risks of rising inventories in weak demand conditions.
According to two leading traders, while a key consuming sector like automotive has already reduced CRC restocking to a bare minimum as most manufacturers are still maintaining cuts in production levels, low trading conditions have been aggravated further with special pipe manufacturing units reporting to be closing down plants in southern India and also reducing fresh bookings to negligible levels.
Reports in the market indicated that such has been the impact of high prices on pipe manufacturing that the Indian Pipe Manufacturers’ Association has communicated to the central government seeking immediate market intervention to rein in CRC prices, pointing out the number of units closing down as they were unable to source high-priced raw material and pass on higher prices to their end-users.
However, several traders ruled out any immediate correction setting in and on the contrary are expecting integrated steel mills to continue their aggressive strategy to push up base prices through June, to bolster their first quarter bottom-line.
$1 = INR 72.45