Over the past week, prices in the local Indian hot rolled coil (HRC) market have started to show signs of weakening, decreasing by INR 500/mt to INR 46,000/mt ($675/mt) ex-works, amid a slowdown in restocking by dealers, traders said on Monday, May 21.
“Market reports indicate an inventory build-up at dealers and hence a sharp reduction in restocking and a dampening impact on prices,” a Mumbai-based trader said.
“At the same time, reports that finished steel imports in April this year were up 33 percent year on year also led to a cooling of the market,” the trader added.
However, two other traders said that the downward movement of HRC prices is a temporary blip and that downside risks are minimal. They said that Indian steel mills are unlikely to take much cognizance of a rise in imports during one month and are expected to go for maintaining the price uptrend of recent months by another base price revision next month, which in turn would reverse the trend seen during the past week.
$1 = INR 68.13