Local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) prices have continued to record marginal losses amid cautious bookings by trade and industrials in view of the uncertain demand trends in key user industries, despite reports that mills could hike base prices for the current month.
Sources said that the benchmark 0.9 mm CRC price has inched down INR 100/mt ($1/mt) to INR 60,800/mt ($729/mt) ex-Mumbai and has lost INR 200/mt ($2/mt) to INR 61,850/mt ($742/mt) ex-Chennai in the south.
“Market participants are eagerly awaiting signals on base prices from mills. While a section of the market expected mills to support the market with initiatives with long credit periods and volume-based discounts, others feel that producers will be more aggressive in hiking base prices and will maximise domestic realisations at a time when export sales are almost nil,” a Mumbai-based distributor told SteelOrbis.
“This will definitely trigger the next downtrend as demand projections from most user industries are negative. The decline in prices so far has been at a slow pace, as some mills are taking maintenance shutdowns. Once these mills are back into production end-June and thereafter, supply-side pressures will emerge again,” he added.
$1 = INR 83.40
