The local Indian rebar market has showed little material change over the past week with large primary producers maintaining higher prices, banking on supply contracts to large projects, while secondary mills have persisted with discounted sales in depressed retail market conditions, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Tuesday, June 1.
Sources said that large mills have maintained higher rebar prices at INR 55,000-56,500/mt ($758-778/mt) ex-works, but the tradable price was reported to have weakened slightly to levels of around INR 58,000/mt ($799/mt) ex-Mumbai, compared to levels of around INR 60,000/mt ($826/mt) a week ago.
The sources said that the fall in the tradable price of large mills is not very significant as retail sales by such producers are at negligible levels in most markets, as most volumes are being contracted against longer-term supply contracts or tender bids.
Rebar prices of secondary steel mills are heard to have remained unchanged at INR 50,000-51,000/mt ($689-702/mt) ex-works, but discounts in the range of two to three percent are reported from key regional markets like the north and west, the sources said.
“The asymmetry of primary and secondary steel mills in terms of the markets they cater to is taking a greater toll on the latter. Housing construction and retail sales, the primary market of secondary rebar producers, have been hit the hardest by the pandemic and we expect the impact to last well into the next quarter. Primary mills are able to tide over better, banking on higher-volume supplies to large infrastructure projects,” an official at Shyam Steel, eastern India’s largest rebar producer, said.
$1= INR 72.60