Prices in the local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) market have remained stable during the past week at INR 48,250/mt ($682/mt) ex-works, supported by the steady fall in imports, while the market has been awaited pricing signals from domestic steel mills for current month deliveries, traders said on Tuesday, March 5.
“The market is reconciled to local steel mills increasing their base prices and formal announcements are expected towards the close of the current week. However, buyers do not have any appetite for large bookings at higher prices and so trading activity has been sluggish during the past week,” a Mumbai-based trader said.
“The government has ruled out the imposition of a minimum import price (MIP), but this is unlikely to impact the rising domestic prices, because inward shipments of imported CRC have been steadily falling over the past four weeks anyway,” the trader added.
Market source said that domestic mills are expected to increase base prices by a range of INR 500-1,000/mt, for March deliveries.
However, any market correction from the higher CRC prices is not expected to gain much traction, particularly in view of low import competition, the sources added.
$1 = INR 70.7