Local Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) prices continued to edge lower in reaction to cuts in base price by mills but downside risks are seen to be limited going forward on slight improvement in sentiments and lower prices triggering some increase in bookings, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Monday, July 11.
Indian benchmark 0.9 mm CRC trade price was down INR 500/mt ($6/mt) at INR 68,000/mt ($ 858/mt) ex-Mumbai and similar INR 500/mt ($6/mt) down at INR 68,500/mt ($ 864/mt) ex-Chennai in the south.
The slight improvement in sentiments in trade circles is attributed to hope that key consuming industries like automobile will be able to sustain strong double digit growth in June sales and supporting end use demand, the sources said.
“Sentiments are up slightly. But fundamentals of the market are still uncertain. Much depends on demand from consumer durables and automobile user sectors where immediate trend is positive but outlook uncertain. This is why user industries are staying away from concluding long term supply agreements,” a Mumbai based steel distributor said.
“Our assessment is that in the short term price will remain range-bound but trade volumes will remain low. Procurement cycles will get longer as users are adopting need based inventory management,” he said.
$1 = INR 79.30
