The downtrend in the local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) market has been checked and prices have remained stable over the past week, but without any change in the sluggish trade activity, amid worsening sentiments and outlook following the largely negative June sales growth reported by major consuming industries led by the automobile industry.
Sources said that benchmark 0.9 mm CRC prices are stable to INR 56,200/mt ($656/nt) ex-Mumbai and are unchanged at INR 60,700/mt ($708/mt) ex-Chennai in the sout,h largely attributed to large mills maintaining base prices unchanged for July.
However, despite the unchanged base prices, bookings by both industries and market intermediaries were reported to be almost negligible, with all large passenger carmakers announcing sharp negative sales growth in June and expected to lower raw material procurement as output levels will be limited during the monsoon months of July-September, the sources said.
“Weak buying by industrials and low restocking by market intermediaries will continue to weigh on prices. The stability seen now is misleading. There are a lot of downside risks in the short term,” a Mumbai-based trader told SteelOrbis.
“It is to be noted that standalone re-rollers are offering discounts of INR 1,000 ($12/mt), but still there are no takers of significant volumes, indicating acute demand weakness,” he added.
$1 = INR 85.67
