Over the past week, prices in the local Indian hot rolled coil (HRC) market have increased by 500/mt to INR 45,000/mt ($693/mt) ex-works, in anticipation of base price hikes by domestic steel mills, traders said on Monday, April 9.
“Expectations of a price increase by steel mills for April deliveries have reversed the falling trend seen early in the month,” a Mumbai-based trader said.
“Trading volume, however, stayed on the lower side as dealers are cautious about building up high-cost inventories,” he added.
Sources said that a few of the medium-scale steel mills increased HRC base prices during the past week and large steel mills are expected to announce higher prices over the course of this week.
The market anticipates the large mills will increase their HRC prices by at least INR 1000/mt ($16/mt), the sources said.
However, two other traders said that imported ex-China HRC prices have also softened during the past week by about $20/mt to around $670/mt CFR Mumbai and, although no significant transactions were reported during the week, a falling trend in import prices would put pressure on local Indian HRC prices and domestic steel mills could face resistance from buyers in the coming week.
$1 = INR 64.97