Local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) prices have officially been kept stable over the past week, but sellers led by standalone rerollers have continued to push sales at discount as large industrial users have remained cautious about committing fresh bookings amid the slowdown in movements of stocks of consumer durables and automobiles.
Sources said that benchmark 0.9 mm CRC prices are stable in the range of INR 57,000-58,000/mt ($675/mt-687/mt) but actual booking prices have been lower net of discounts. According to the sources, CRC prices are reported at 55,000/mt ($652/mt) ex-Mumbai net of discounts and the same as in the earlier week, while sales have been at INR 55,500/mt ($658/mt) ex-Chennai, net of discount, compared to 56,000/mt ($664/mt) net of discount a week ago.
The sources said that a major consuming industry like automobile manufacturing has been under pressure from dealers to reduce inventories by lowering dispatches from factories to the retail end and this is expected to keep fresh bookings of raw materials by auto companies at a minimum.
Hence, standalone rerollers have been forced to maintain discounts in order to be able to push volumes into the market and limit inventories costs.
$1 = INR 84.40
