Following the slight uptrend seen in local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) prices last week, this week domestic CRC prices have softened as large industrial users led by automobile manufacturers have been taking a pause from fresh bookings and re-rollers have been resorting to discounted sales under pressures from inventories.
Sources said that benchmark 0.9 mm CRC prices have moved down INR 700/mt ($8/mt) to INR 59,100/mt ($706/mt) ex-Mumbai and have lost INR 500/mt ($6/mt) to INR 59,600/mt ($712/mt) ex-Chennai in the south.
According to sources, there have been hardly any bookings reported from the spot market, with automobile makers taking a pause from restocking amid the ongoing lull in sales during the monsoon season and with a few South Korean car makers preferring imports to feed their assembly lines in India.
“The demand depression is worsening, and this will lead to a prolonged downturn in the CRC market. There is a lot of disappointment over the absence of a stimulus from the government. The national budget presented recently does not contain any specific measure to boost demand for steel, nor any specific positive for large user sectors,” a Mumbai-based distributor said.
“We will continue to see a steady fall in trading volumes and only small deals at ever rising discounts,” he added.
$1 = INR 83.70
