Local Indian local cold rolled coil (CRC) prices have continued to remain under pressure with prices moving down by INR 600/mt ($8/mt) week on week to INR 37,800/mt ($533/mt) ex-works with sentiments impacted by reports that the expected festival season demand revival in the automobile sector is unlikely to materialize, SteelOrbis has been informed.
“Fresh bookings by end-users are almost at a halt. Large mills have not been able to execute any significant export contracts either, leading to mounting unsold stocks and too much material available in the market,” a Mumbai-based trader said.
“The expected demand revival in auto sales, currently down for the 10th consecutive month, is elusive. There has not been any festival season demand uptick. Banks are pushing auto finance lending to retail customers but buyers are not rushing to the auto showrooms either in view of the overall economic downturn, and so auto manufacturers’ hope of increasing October-November sales will be belied,” the trader added.
According to the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM), most domestic commercial and passenger manufacturing companies have announced ‘no-production days” for September and are expected to continue the schedule closure of operations in October too. In view of this, market sources said that a further fall in raw material purchases is expected and this will keep CRC prices under sustained pressures.
The sources said that most large domestic CRC producers have been offering across-the-board discounts in the range of 10-15 percent, but this is not having the desired impact of increasing trading volumes in the market.
$1 = INR 70.83