Indian hot rolled coil (HRC) market showed a strong performance with prices maintaining at higher levels of INR 42,500-43,000/mt ($577-584/mt) ex-works amid firm trading activity in reaction to one producer taking early lead in increasing base price for October deliveries, SteelOrbis learned on Monday, September 28.
According to market sources, a western India based integrated steel mill has been the first to increase base price for next month in the range of INR 500-1,000/mt ($7-14/mt) indicating that others will follow suit over the next couple of weeks triggering rise in restocking by market intermediaries and fresh bookings by end users.
However, one official at a government run steel producer said that it is possible that not all integrated steel mills will hike base price uniformly and even some might maintain it considering the mounting lobbying among end user and small and medium scale industries with the government against rapid increase in flat steel prices in the domestic market.
He said that it is possible that government steel producers might hold HRC price lines to avoid backlash from users and even government intervention.
However, according to Indian Steel Association (ISA), domestic HRC prices are almost close to pre-Covid period, but still far below the INR 46,000/mt ($624/mt) of November 2018, while iron ore prices have zoomed far above the pre-Covid level, surging 58 percent since June 2020, and steel producers will have to take ‘appropriate pricing measures’ to adjust to the changed production costs hinting that further rounds of base price increases are inevitable at time when domestic demand is getting stronger.
$1= INR 73.66
