Local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) prices have shown a mixed trend over the past week, with regional gains driven by localized factors, while overall market sentiment has remained cautious amid slow to moderate booking from large industrial consumers such as automobile manufacturers.
Specifically, the benchmark 0.9 mm CRC price has remained stable at INR 54,500/mt ($594/mt) ex-Mumbai but has shown sharp gains of INR 1,000/mt ($11/mt) to INR 59,700/mt ($651/mt) ex-Chennai in the south, attributed to the disruption of deliveries from re-rollers to end-users and sellers pushing up the price for immediate deliveries.
However, trade activity and stock movement from distributors have remained on the slower side. Distributors have stayed cautious on fresh restocking as liquidity has tightened toward the fiscal year-end on March 31, with working capital availability from banks being squeezed. The focus therefore has shifted to liquidating existing inventories to raise cash. At the same time, large industrial buyers such as automobile manufacturers have reduced bookings amid uncertainty over whether the recent monthly sales growth will be sustained through the fiscal year-end.
“The market is in a somewhat stalemate condition and prices are expected to remain range-bound. Producers are hiking prices taking advantage of lower import competition, but this is not supported by any significant demand driver,” a Mumbai-based distributor told SteelOrbis.
“Industrial users are expecting their sales growth to slow down toward the financial year-end and are therefore reducing raw material restocking. All eyes are on the national budget for 2026-2027 to be unveiled next week. There is a lot of talk about further rationalization of both direct and indirect tax structures. This may offer a positive impact to macro-economic indicators and thereby support the market in the medium term,” he added.
