Nipping a short-lived uptrend, local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) prices have edged down by INR 350/mt to INR 46,650/mt ($669/mt) ex-works, as actual users and market intermediaries have pulled out of the market in order to avoid building up inventories to cope with manufacturing slowdown, traders said on Tuesday, April 23.
“Sentiments are very weak amidst reports of manufacturing sector slowdown and no indication of a reversal in the medium term,” a Mumbai based trader said.
“The national elections spread out over a month and half has led to prolonged political uncertainties and no market participant is willing to make commitment in such environment,” he added.
Market sources said that though there has been a revival in export shipments over the past week, this was failing to support local prices as overseas shipments would need to sustain over several weeks to revive current weak domestic market conditions.
They said that there is still too much volume availability in the market both as trades and steel mill ends, which is depressing sentiments and prices.
At least two other traders said that local CRC prices still have a downside risk of around INR 500/mt in the short term as the current slowdown is expected to aggravate during the coming monsoon season when manufacturing in any case becomes sluggish.
$1 = INR 69.74