Large Indian integrated steel mills have commenced hiking flat product base prices for the third time in the past few weeks riding on bullish local market conditions and the recent import protection announced by the government, SteelOrbis has learned from company sources.
Sources said that the mills have increased flat product base prices by a range of INR 1,000-1,500/mt ($11-17/mt) effective for both hot rolled coil (HRC) and cold rolled coil (CRC) for January deliveries.
Following the mills’ latest revisions of prices, listed prices for HRC now stand at INR 49,100-49,600/mt ($544-550/mt) and those for CRC are in the range of INR 56,700-57,200/mt ($628-634/mt).
Sources in industry and trade said that the two rounds of base price increases announced later in December had been well absorbed by the market as indicated by the sharp rally in trade prices and aggressive restocking seen by both market intermediaries and industrial users.
At the same time, the government announcement of a three-year phased safeguard duty starting at 12 percent in the first year has brought certainty and stability in import protection, enabling producers to maximize pricing margins at a time when volumes are moving faster from mill to market.
The import protection also offers mills headroom to aggressively hike prices and offset rising landed prices of imported raw materials owing to the local rupee depreciating to a new historical low.
