The local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) market has continued its downward movement for the fourth consecutive week, softening by INR 500/mt during the past week to INR 47,500/mt ($713/mt) ex-works, amid ongoing rises in inventories across the market, traders said on Tuesday, March 7.
"The Indian steel flat product market has been showing divergent trends. While hot rolled cold product prices have appeared to stabilize, such stability has been absent for a month now in the case of CRC," a Mumbai-based trader said.
"The sustained fall in CRC prices could be attributed to the fact that inventories at steel mills and dealers are very large and stock movements have slowed down further amid a lack of interest from end-users," the trader added.
At least two traders said that several dealers in the western and southern Indian markets are facing a severe liquidity crisis having large inventories bought at higher price levels and are saddled with idle stocks now.
The traders said that several dealers in the west and south are reportedly offering distress discounts in the range of INR 500-1,000/mt in a desperate bid to improve cash flows.
$1 = INR 66.64