Indian domestic steel mills have hiked base prices for flat steel products for February bookings by INR 500-750/mt ($7-10/mt), citing rising input costs, particularly coal and energy costs, SteelOrbis learned from companies on Monday, January 31.
Following the increase, effective benchmark hot rolled coil (HRC) base prices would be in the range of INR 68,000-69,250/mt ($906-923/mt) ex-works, sources at producing companies said.
Effective prices for cold rolled coil will be in range of INR 74,500-75,000/mt ($993-1,000/mt) ex-work, following the revision of base prices.
“The correction of prices has run its course. Whatever further price correction can happen in China and Asia will not happen in India. Consumption is still not robust but is improving. For December 2021, the domestic consumption estimate is around 9.29 million mt, the highest since April 2021,” sources at a private sector steel mill said.
“The current price increases announced for February are entirely from a cost push. The margin improvement for producers will be negligible,” the sources said.
Market intermediaries also expect the higher prices will be absorbed by the market. “Trade channels have been seeing a slowdown in activity over the past two months and it is expected that project demand and downstream users will see some upside in February subject to higher government outlays in the national budget 2022-23 to be unveiled on Tuesday,” a Mumbai-based steel distributor said.
$1= INR 75.00
