India’s JSW Steel Limited has taken the lead in announcing base price hikes for flat products for August deliveries, SteelOrbis learned from industry and trade circles on Wednesday, August 2.
JSW Steel Limited has increased base prices for flat products by INR 750-1,250/mt ($9-15/mt) with immediate effect. Following this, the effective price for hot rolled coil (HRC) stands at INR 57,000/mt ($693/mt) ex-works and for cold rolled coil (CRC) at INR 63,050/mt ($766/mt) ex-works.
Market sources consider this as a good sign and are waiting for other Indian mills to announce price increase for August. But it has to be mentioned that last month JSW Steel was the only big mill which had cut its prices for HRC, by RMB 1,000/mt, while other producers had kept their base prices stable. Rising costs may push mills to seek higher prices, though in general demand in India is not supportive of large hikes, at least for now, according to market sources.
