Local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) prices have remained unchanged during the past week at INR 48,250/mt ($748/mt) ex-works amid conflicting claims over market conditions, traders said on Tuesday, April 18.
Some sources in the market believe that local steel mills will take advantage of the recently imposed antidumping duty on imported CRC to go in for a second base price revision this month.
However, at the same time, two traders who were interviewed said that, without any fundamental revival in demand, import restrictions alone will not be sufficient for local CRC prices to consolidate gains over the past weeks and the slight fall in trading volumes during the past week is a signal that a price correction could be seen shortly.
"Most market participants are not sure of how the market is going to react after the recent spurt in prices. Accordingly, most are maintaining only a marginal presence in the market, leading to reduced activity," a Mumbai-based trader said.
"There is no evidence of end-users increasing their off-take and so there are doubts over whether current price levels will be sustained," the trader added.
Market sources also said that, with the Indian currency continuing to appreciate against the dollar and the government making it clear that there will be no intervention to weaken the rupee in interest of pushing exports, this has also prompted most large mills to focus on pushing volumes in the domestic market, which may put new pressure on prices.
$1 = INR 64.51