After recording sustained losses, the local Indian hot rolled coil (HRC) market has showed signs of stability with more buyers becoming active after the holidays with moderate restocking, while additional support has come from expectations that mills will hike November base prices, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Monday, November 10.
Sources said that trade-level HRC prices are stable at INR 46,700/mt ($527/mt) ex-Mumbai and unchanged at INR 49,000/mt ($552/mt) ex-Chennai in the south.
According to the sources, while the overall demand and forecast remain bearish, the delayed return of market participants after the holidays and restocking - albeit of relatively small volumes - slightly improved the mood and offered support to trade prices.
They sources said that signals coming from large mills indicate a possible base price hike of INR 750-1,000/mt ($8-11/mt), triggering some restocking by industrial users. At the same time, a few medium-size blast furnace operators are heard to be considering maintenance shutdowns, which could help ease pressures from the supply side for a while.
“The market stabilizing is a positive. But it is very uncertain whether this will hold as demand projections continue to remain bearish as industrial users are still cautious in booking large volumes and building up raw material inventories,” a Mumbai-based distributor told SteelOrbis.
“The usual post-festival season demand uptick has been elusive this time. At best, prices will therefore remain range-bound,” he added.
$1 = INR 88.62
