Local Indian hot rolled coil (HRC) trade prices have inched up during the past week as integrated mills completed base price increases for the current month, combined with a slight tightening of supplies, with plants going in for maintenance shutdowns and a section of the market anticipating some price correction round the corner, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Monday, August 7.
Sources said that HRC trade prices are up INR 100/mt ($1.20/mt) to INR 56,100/mt ($679/mt) ex-Mumbai and are up INR 200/mt ($2/mt) to INR 55,000/mt ($666/mt) ex-Chennai in the south.
They said that large mills have completed announcing base price increases for flat products for current month deliveries in the range of INR750-1,250/mt ($9-15/mt), but the trade price reaction has been limited in comparison.
“Trade prices have been on the rise for three consecutive weeks on the combination of base price increases and some large mills under maintenance shutdowns. More realistic market condition will emerge once these mills are back into production from the end of August onwards and a price correction is a possibility,” a Mumbai-based distributor told SteelOrbis.
“Once normal supplies resume, inherent weak demand will get reflected in prices. Producers too are aware of it and hence the base price increases have been conservative,” he added.
Producers are also maintaining a bearish outlook for the second quarter (July-September). “Realizations during the second quarter can be lower by as much as INR 3,000/mt ($36/mt) compared to the first quarter, this despite lower coking coal import prices. Any price rebound can only be expected in the second half of the current fiscal,” an official with Tata Steel said.
$1 = INR 82.60