Local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) price have declined marginally amid muted trade activity and with end-user industries largely being cautious as regards concluding fresh bookings following the slowdown in sales growth of their finished products.
Sources said that benchmark 0.9 mm CRC prices have inched down by INR 100/mt ($1.5/mt) to INR 60,900/mt ($731/mt) ex-Chennai and have lost INR 200/mt ($3/mt) to INR 62,050/mt ($745/mt) ex-Chennai in the south.
They said that, in view of the slowdown in sales growth, key user industries are not in any urgency to commit fresh bookings and some industrials are also heard to be deferring lifting material from rerollers against long-term supply agreements.
“The market is lacking any direction and trading volumes are very low. Prices are holding as of now without many downside risks as some mills have reduced supplies owing to rolling mill shutdowns. But with demand also weak, we expect prices to remain range-bound,” a Mumbai-based distributor told SteelOrbis.
“Domestic market dynamics are unlikely to change much. The big imponderable, of course, is how ex-China imports into the country evolve in the coming months, after the US recently increased tariffs on imports from China. Will this trigger higher imports to India? That is the key question before most local market participants,” he added.
$1 = INR 83.30