Local Indian hot rolled coil (HRC) prices have remained unchanged during the past week at INR 38,200/mt ($509/mt) ex-works amid negligible buying by end-users and dealers as the market did not expect manufacturing to respond well to the fresh relaxations of lockdown restrictions, while domestic steel mills are expected to keep base prices unchanged for the current month, sources said on Monday, May 4.
According to traders, the national lockdown has been extended until May 17 and, even though the central government has announced relaxations of lockdown conditions, it is still too early for manufacturing industries to resume operations and steel producers will have to continue to face a severe demand recession for a further extended period and hence continued low market activity.
“We cannot take any pricing decision under the current situation. There are uncertainties over our supply chain. There are uncertainties in marketing and distribution as several parts of these channels continue to be in ‘red zones’. Sourcing manpower continues to be a challenge. So it’s just holding operations for us and there is no conclusive forecast as to how the lockdown exit will be unveiled and hence we cannot take any decision on pricing,” a senior manager at a private steel producer told SteelOrbis.
Market sources said that most integrated steel mills were offering discounts ranging at INR 500- 1,000/mt ($7-14/mt), but still failed to attract any significant bookings during the past week and inventory management hinges only on pushing higher HRC volumes overseas.
$1 = INR 75.00
