Local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) prices have remained stable during the past week at INR 51,500/mt ($772/mt) ex-works amid steady trading volumes and a bullish outlook, traders said on Tuesday, May 2.
“After two consecutive week of rises, a pause in the upward movement of prices was expected. However, the upside bias persists as market participants are continuing to conclude transactions, anticipating that local steel mills will hike their base prices for current month deliveries,” a Mumbai-based trader said.
“Indian mills are enjoying strong pricing power from a combination of strong exports, higher export margins from the weakening of the Indian rupee against the dollar, and tight CRC supplies in the local market,” the trader added.
According to two other traders, domestic steel mills are aggressive in pushing CRC volumes to the Southeast Asian market.
The two traders said that these CRC exporters have increased their offer prices by $15-20/mt to levels of $650-670/mt FOB. These exports are expected to result in some drop in supplies in the Indian market and to support domestic base price revisions expected in course of the next two weeks.
$1 = INR 66.69