After a brief correction, local Indian rebar prices have staged a sharp rebound following base price increases by secondary and integrated mills and strong all-round restocking by real estate developers and project construction companies, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Tuesday, January 17.
Indian trade rebar prices have surged by INR 1,700/mt ($21/mt) to INR 57,500/mt ($698/mt) ex-Mumbai and are up INR 1,300/mt ($16/mt) to INR 54,000/mt ($655/mt) ex-Chennai in the south.
Rebar prices have moved up by INR 1,800/mt ($22/mt) to INR 52,700/mt ($640/mt) ex-Raipur in the central region and are up INR 2,400/mt ($29/mt) to INR 53,500/mt ($649/mt) ex-Durgapur in the east.
Sources said that integrated mills have increased rebar base prices by INR 1,000/mt ($12/mt), while induction furnace operators have effected average price hikes of INR 1,500/mt ($18/mt) over the past week, but the increases have been absorbed by the market which overcame previous downside corrections to surge riding on the sharp increase in trade volumes and robust buying by both trade channels and user sectors.
“There is all-round optimism across user sectors. Real estate developers are aggressively launching urban projects across regions and actively restocking raw materials. The mood is bullish among large construction companies as they expect the government to significantly increase fund outlay in the national budget for infrastructure projects,” a Kolkata-based distributor said.
“Input prices of energy, coal, sponge iron and scrap are all rising in the case of the secondary mills. Since the latest round of rebar price increases has been absorbed even at a time when the market was in a correction phase, mills can be expected to go in for another round of revisions in January,” he said.
$1 = INR 82.40