The local Indian rebar market has continued to consolidate at higher levels with prices finding support from sustained project bookings and positive sentiments seen across regions with the revival of bookings in retail sales, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Tuesday, March 4.
Sources said that rebar trade prices are up INR 300/mt ($3/mt) to INR 49,100/mt ($562/mt) ex-Mumbai and have also gained INR 300/mt ($3/mt) to INR 46,300/mt ($530/mt) ex-Chennai in the south.
Rebar trade prices have moved up by INR 500/mt ($6/mt) to INR 43,500/mt ($498/mt) ex-Raipur and are stable at INR 43,200/mt ($494/mt) ex-Durgapur in the east.
According to sources, buyers representing large engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) companies have continued to place large bookings with integrated mills, which offers strong support to the market, while regional markets too have participated in the uptrend with the revival of bookings at the retail end by medium-scale real estate developers and semi-urban infrastructure companies.
However, a section of the market claimed that project buying by EPC companies is usually not sustained and there are downside risks to prices as soon as they complete their raw material restocking.
“Buyers are mostly booking materials to meet immediate needs and, considering year-end compulsions of maintaining cash on books, are not willing to build raw material inventories. Rebar prices can fall back as soon as this round of buying is completed,” a Kolkata-based distributor said on a cautious note.
$1 = INR 87.40