Local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) prices have remained stable over the past week amid thin trading activity with large industrial users continuing with cautious restocking and with an overall slowdown in manufacturing growth, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Monday, July 6.
Sources said that benchmark 0.9 mm CRC prices are stable at INR 64,500/mt ($677/mt) ex-Mumbai and are unchanged at INR 65,400/mt ($687/mt) ex-Chennai in the south.
According to the sources, major consuming sector like automobile manufacturers have been seeing a sharp moderation in sales growth, month on month, amid a combination of the usual slowdown seen during the monsoon season, coupled with the impact from the recent increases announced by a number of passenger car makers.
At the same time, there is no clarity in the market over mills’ base prices for the current month, and a section of market intermediaries and end-users have been deferring fresh bookings, anticipating a correction to set in as the market lacks positive drivers like a demand uptick in the next few months, the sources said.
“The next risk to prices will come from base pricing decisions from mills. The latter are under pressure to increase July base prices to protect margins from rising costs. But such can be counter-productive in causing a further slowdown in stock movements and pressures from higher inventories on prices. Either way, these are big challenges,” a Mumbai-based distributor said.
“Industrials are facing a slowdown in sales growth. They are reducing or deferring bookings, anticipating a market correction, irrespective of decisions from producers,” he added.
$1= INR 95.19
