Local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) prices have continued to lose ground for the second consecutive week with prices moving down by INR 350/mt week on week to INR 46,300/mt ($663/mt) ex-works amid inactive market conditions and due to intermediaries and end-users preferring not to make fresh bookings, traders said on Tuesday, April 30.
“The overall sentiment has been steadily weakening over the past fortnight. Dealers have sufficient stocks and are awaiting new pricing signals from steel mills for May before deciding on bookings. At the same time, end-users are extremely cautious over inventory management in view of the slowdown in sales,” a Mumbai-based trader said.
“I do not think large domestic steel mills will adjust their base prices for May to cope with slower domestic sales as most of these mills have become active in increasing shipment volumes overseas and are not much concerned over their inventory build-up,” the trader added.
Market sources said that traders are also witnessing stock pile-ups in face of distribution bottlenecks and shortages of road transportation as a large share of bulk road transportation had been acquired for the national elections currently underway and railways are in no position to accept freight bookings in the short term.
$1 = INR 69.84