The local Indian rebar market showed has been characterized by a lack of clarity during the past week amid an overall negative mood with prices holding their ground in some major trading hubs but continuing to decline in regional markets amid sluggish buying activity and induction furnace operators and some distributors dropping prices in order to push sales, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Tuesday, October 7.
Sources said that rebar trade prices are stable at INR 43,000/mt ($484/mt) ex-Mumbai but have suffered setbacks and lost INR 200/mt ($2/mt) to INR 44,000/mt ($496/mt) ex-Chennai in the south.
Rebar trade prices are down INR 600/mt ($7/mt) to INR 38,800/mt ($437/mt) ex-Raipur in the central region and down INR 300/mt ($3/mt) to INR 38,500/mt ($434/mt) ex-Durgapur in the east.
Sources said that large buyers from engineering procurement construction (EPC) companies have been out of the market for the past several weeks, while retail trade activity has also fallen week on week, with buyers among real estate developers and the small urban infrastructure sector continuing to go slow in project implementation.
The extended monsoon rains and floods coupled with festival holidays have kept market participants on the sidelines, the sources added.
“Everybody in the market is turning more cautious by the day because no one is sure of the market direction. While a revival is not seen on the horizon, the biggest negative is that it is difficult to see a bottom either. The mood is very bad,” a Kolkata-based distributor said.
“No sale is possible without a discount. But we cannot sustain discounted sales anymore,” he added.
$1 = INR 88.77
