Local Indian rebar prices have showed a mixed trend over the past week with signs of a correction in a few regional markets and participants partially ignoring the national budget’s sharp increase in government spending on infrastructure and its potential impact in boosting demand, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Tuesday, February 3.
Sources said that trade-level rebar prices are up INR 700/mt ($8/mt) to INR 50,800/mt ($556/mt) ex-Mumbai and have gained INR 600/mt ($7/mt) to INR 47,800/mt ($523/mt) ex-Chennai in the south.
However, trade rebar prices are unchanged at INR 43,900/mt ($481/mt) ex-Raipur but have lost INR 200/mt ($2/mt) tı INR 43,600/mt ($477/mt) ex-Durgapur in the east.
It was pointed out that the national budget for 2026-27 presented before parliament on February 1 increased capital expenditure by nine percent, representing 4.4 percent of the country’s GDP. However, sources said that, even though this is expected to give a significant boost to demand, the market has largely ignored it as the positive elements of a rise in government spending had already been “factored in by the market” and reflected in the sharp increases in prices of construction grade steel well before the budget, during January.
“There had been a lot of market exuberance leading to very aggressive restocking in anticipation of the budget and January prices surged as a result. Now the market is settling down to a more reasonable pace,” a Kolkata-based distributor said.
“Also, there was a lot of over-buying last month and these buyers are not lifting stocks, already booked. Distributors, mostly in regional markets, are therefore increasing trade discounts to push these volumes into the market as they don’t want cash to be locked up during the fiscal year-end,” he added.
$1 = INR 91.22
