Indian domestic hot rolled coil (HRC) prices have showed no significant change during the past week, remaining stable in the range of INR 36,500- 37,500/mt ($609-626/mt) ex-works, amid trading of very low volumes and persistent low demand, traders said on Tuesday, July 30.
"There has been very little buying interest in the market and only small volumes have been moving. Steel mills have been determined not to effect any price corrections despite low demand since raw material costs including iron ore have been rising," a Mumbai-based trader said.
"Given the market dynamics of rising input costs for producers and low demand and off-take faced by intermediaries, I do not see much variation in domestic HRC prices in the medium term," the trader added.
Market sources said that import offers have ranged at $580-590/mt CFR Mumbai, but these levels have been too high for the local market to absorb and so there have been no reports of any significant import transactions in the market.
The sources, however, added that, in the absence of any import pressures, local steel mills could implement a series of marginal price increases of about INR 300/mt ($5/mt) at a time, in order to halt the erosion of their margins from input cost increases.