The local Indian rebar market has come under renewed pressures during the past week, with prices softening across the board amid speculations and fears of fresh lockdown impositions in select regions nipping in the bud the green shoots of the demand revival, SteelOrbis has learned on Tuesday, June 16.
Rebar prices across producers among integrated steel mills and the secondary sector have lost ground as Chennai in southern India is re-imposing a fresh lockdown in view of the rise in Covid-19 cases and a lot of speculation and rumors that other regions with high incidence of Covid-19 could also follow suit.
Fears and uncertainties over fresh lockdowns have halted even the slight revival in demand emerging for secondary producers and government rural project-led fresh bookings, traders said.
Rebar prices from integrated steel mills have shed INR 500/mt ($7/mt) to INR 36,500/mt ($480/mt) ex-stockyard. Fresh uncertainties in the market have prompted secondary steel producers to roll back price increases effected in the earlier week, lowering them further by INR 1,000/mt ($13/mt) to INR 30,000/mt ($395/mt) ex-stockyard.
Rebar prices of secondary steel mills in northern region around Delhi, which had gained significantly in the earlier week on the hoped-for renewal of industrial and construction activities slumped sharply to around INR 29,000/mt ($382/mt) ex-stockyard, down from INR 31,800/mt ($418/mt) in earlier weeks, market sources said.
Though regional governments in Delhi have officially ruled out a fresh lockdown, the market has been unnerved by the rise in Covid-19 cases in and around the capital city, with market participants stating that even without a lockdown key consuming industries are unlikely to restart operations or gain momentum as the pandemic crisis worsened during the past week in terms of the number of new cases.
$1 = INR 76.00