Pries in the local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) market have remained stable during the past week at INR 47,000/mt ($740/mt) ex-works, as cautious mood prevailed in the market , traders said on Tuesday, January 16.
“There is a lot of speculation in the market that local steel mills could go ahead with second base price hike of the month in the coming week,” a Mumbai based trader said.
“Dealers have become cautious in making large volume bookings as they don’t want to lock up too much funds in inventories without any significant uptick in demand or stock movements,” the trader added.
At least two other traders said that domestic steel mills may increase base price by another INR 1,000/mt citing rising price of raw materials but there did not seem to be unanimity on the market on this.
A section of the market however maintained that Indian overseas shipments of CRC to Southeast Asian markets seemed to be falling and this could prompt the steel mills to maintain base price to avoid inventory build up at the mill end.
The divergent price anticipation among various market participants has resulted in dull trading conditions during the week, sources added.
$1 = INR 63.90