India’s flat steel import activity has continued to remain muted in the past week, with only small-volume deals concluded for ex-South Korea and ex-China hot rolled coil (HRC), while most buyers have stayed away amid ongoing uncertainties over likely import duty changes to be cleared at the forthcoming national budget next month, SteelOrbis learned on Thursday, January 23.
Market sources said that a western Indian re-roller producer of cold rolled coil (CRC) with an exclusive supply contract with southern India-based automobile manufacturers has concluded a deal for an estimated 7,000 mt of ex-South Korea HRC at $550/mt CFR Mumbai, at least $10/mt higher than offer levels in the previous week.
The sources said that at least two merchant traders purchased an aggregate of 12,000 mt of ex-China HRC at $520/mt CFR Mumbai, also up by about $10/mt from last week. The sources said that most of the transactions concluded by merchant traders were to meet re-export commitments to neighboring countries as local-end users mostly preferred to source from local markets to avoid any risks of an increase in import duty by the government when it places its national budget before parliament on February 1.
“There is a lot of uncertainty over whether the government will increase import duty on steel products. It has already announced new mandatory standards for various steel products as non-tariff barriers to inward shipment of these products which do not meet such standards,” a manager at an eastern India steel company said.
“We welcome import protection as this will enable domestic mills to further push local price recovery. It will also shift a lot of demand from imports to domestic mills from end-users like auto grade steel,” he added.
