Local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) prices remained stable amid conflicting market dynamics of expected base price hike by mills and bearish outlook in end use industries.
Sources said that benchmark 0.9 mm CRC trade prices remained unchanged at INR 59,100/mt ($715/mt) ex-Mumbai and stable at INR 58,000/mt ($702/mt) ex-Chennai in the south.
They said that even though mills are expected to increase base price mid-July, it will have limited upside impact on trade level prices because of continued import competition. “Several CRC user industries are under inflationary pressures. For example, automobile manufacturers are announcing price increases across categories and sales growth is slowing down which will negatively impact raw material demand going forward,” a Mumbai based distributor told SteelOrbis.
“Mills may go in for a mid-month base price increase but will have minimal impact on trade level prices owing to import competition and surplus inventories with re-rolling mills,” he added.
However, producers maintained a more optimistic outlook with an official with an exclusive flat steel producing mil stating that non-automotive users like industrial packaging material industry will drive incremental sales as these were more dependent on domestic sourcing.
$1= INR 82.60