Local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) prices have lost ground with prices moving down amid the weak demand forecast and reports of a rise in inventories held by rerollers, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Monday, January 1.
Sources said that benchmark 0.9 mm CRC prices are down INR 300/mt ($4/mt) to INR 62,200/mt ($748/mt) ex-Mumbai and have lost INR 200/mt ($2/mt) to INR 63,550/mt ($764/mt) ex-Chennai in the south.
The sources said that rerollers are reporting falls in offtake from key buyers in the automobile and consumer industries. Significantly, most passenger car makers have already announced price increases effective from January, triggering a slowdown in sales and hence large automobile companies are slowing down raw material bookings for the last quarter of the fiscal year 2023-24.
“We hear that large South Korean and Chinese automobile companies in India are increasing imports and only domestic passenger car makers are active buyers from rerollers. The fall in bookings by foreign passenger car makers has left rerollers with higher inventories,” a Mumbai-based distributor said.
“At the same time, a section of the market believes that integrated mills will lower base prices, even if only marginally, to support the current weak market conditions, prompting traders to defer any new bookings,” he said.
$1 = INR 83.20
