The local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) market has emerged from a three-week downtrend, edging up by INR 500/mt during the past week to INR 47,000/mt ($676/mt) ex-works but doubts persist among intermediaries over the sustainability of the revival as it has been matched by a sharp fall in trading activity, traders said on Tuesday, April 16.
“Overall market activity has been so low that even scattered stray restocking by a few market intermediaries was able to reverse the falling trend seen earlier,” a Mumbai-based trader said.
“The uptrend is unlikely to be sustained as there is no strong fundamental support from end-user demand, nor is restocking by dealers widespread and strong enough to sustain the past week’s gains,” the trader added.
At least two other traders observed that the upward price movement was “more of an aberration and not a trend indicator’ as there have been signals of a rise in imports particularly of ex-Japan CRC shipments which would, if sustained over a week or so, would renew pressures on local CRC prices.
$1 = INR 69.56