Taking an early lead in the market, Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) has announced hike in flat product base with immediate effect, sources said on Wednesday, December 28.
The sources said that effective base price has been increased by INR 500/mt ($6/mt) for hot rolled coil (HRC) at INR 55,500/mt ($669/mt) ex-works and also by INR 500/mt ($6/mt) for cold rolled coil (CRC) at INR 61,500/mt ($741/mt) ex-works.
According to the sources, SAIL has gone in for early announcement of price increase for January deliveries and hence other integrated mills are likely to announce similar hikes before the year end.
However, they pointed out that the hikes are lower than market expectations of INR 1,000/mt ($12/mt) at lease in case of flat products and therefore another round of similar increase could not be ruled out toward mid or end January as mills could be expected to ride on improved overseas sales to offset rise in energy costs.
$1= INR 82.90