Local Indian hot rolled coil (HRC) trade prices remained stable amid thin trading conditions on year-end considerations and absence of any signals from mills on January base price, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Monday, December 25.
Indian HRC trade price was stable at INR 58,300/mt ($701/mt) ex-Mumbai and unchanged at INR 58,750/mt ($706/mt) ex-Chennai in the south.
Sources said that trade channels remained completely quiet as distributors were not willing to increase inventories for year-end considerations.
Also, there is no indication of mills’ base price for January with a section of the market expecting producers to go in for a price increase, but in fact making the discounts from mills official listed prices.
“The market lacks direction at the moment and we expect trade level price to remain range-bound in the short and medium term” a Mumbai based distributor said.
“Large distributors have almost exhausted their working capital limits with banks and lenders and are hence liquidity strapped and not committing any fresh bookings. This situation is expected to continue until the end of the fiscal year on March 31,” he said.
According to sources in Tata Steel, domestic prices will remain under pressure of imports and weak demand. The lowest offers for Chinese Q235 HRC have been reported at $595-600/mt CFR to India, and even though it is slightly down by $5-10/mt from the previous levels, buyers have not been interested in purchases as local prices are equivalent to similar levels.
The sources, however, are optimistic of the government taking non-tariff measures to check imports like port-based quality checks on imports which could offer some support to the depressed market conditions.
$1= INR 83.20
