Local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) prices have maintained higher levels during the past week amid improved fresh bookings as key consuming industries like automobile and consumer durables begin to crank up production levels, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Monday, June 14.
Local CRC prices have remained at INR 85,000-86,000/mt ($1,161-1,174/mt) ex-works with a number of market intermediaries anticipating base prices to rise by at least INR 4,000/mt ($54/mt) once mills commence increasing hot rolled coil (HRC) base prices, triggering restocking by user industries reviving their own plant outputs.
Traders and analysts said that automobile and consumer durables manufacturers are seeking to bring back plant outputs before the end of the current month to at least 75-80 percent of production in the months preceding the second wave of the pandemic.
The revival in production in the automobile sector was reflected by the statement issued by R C Bhargava, CEO of Maruti Suzuki India Limited (MSIL), the country’s largest passenger car maker. He said that MSIL will bring back its plant to full capacity before the end of the current month and that there is enough demand with 150,000 pending bookings ensuring a busy time at dealerships.
Similarly, it was pointed out that consumer durables manufacturers are also increasing plant output to meet pent-up demand even as dealerships across cities re-open and are aggressively increasing booking volumes, also to beat the expected base price hikes for HRC over the next few weeks.
$1 = INR 73.20