Local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) prices have remained stable during the past week at INR 37,100/mt ($524/mt) ex-works amid low trading activity and the market anticipating lower-than--expected sales data from automobile manufacturers and continued minimal fresh bookings by end-users, traders said on Monday, November 4.
While aggregate data from automobile manufacturers are yet to be issued, sales figures from individual passenger car manufacturers indicate lower-than-expected figures, that are unlikely to trigger any significant upturn in their raw material bookings.
The traders pointed out that the October sales of the country’s largest passenger car manufacturer in terms of market share, Maruti Suzuki, were up 4.5 percent over the corresponding month of the previous year. The October sales of the country’s second largest passenger car manufacturer, Hyundai India, were up 3.8 percent over the corresponding month of the previous year. “Though industry aggregate sales data are not yet available, sales for October 2019 from individual auto companies indicate a disappointing and lower-than-expected rebound in sales during the month, particularly for a festive month, when the uptick in sales was expected to be bigger,” a Mumbai-based trader said.
“The low single-digit revival in monthly sales is unlikely to change the production strategies of automobile manufacturers and reverse production cuts and lower raw material inventory building either,” the trader added.
Sources said that Indian CRC exports have also remained sluggish and ex-India material is not finding acceptance in key overseas markets like Southeast Asia, and several Indian steel mills have been lowering conversion to CRC and instead focusing on pushing higher export volumes of HRC as a strategy to prevent inventory buildups.
$1 = INR 70.80