The local Indian rebar market has entered a sharp upturn over the past week, with prices surging amid a combination of secondary mills increasing prices, large engineering, procurement, construction (EPC) companies returning to book large volumes and improvements in retail sales across regions, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Tuesday, December 23.
Sources said that rebar trade prices have jumped INR 600/mt ($7/mt) to INR 45,300/mt ($505/mt) ex-Mumbai and have surged INR 1,000/mt ($11/mt) to INR 43,800/mt ($489/mt) ex-Chennai in the south.
Rebar trade-level prices are up INR 1,700/mt ($19/mt) to INR 40,700/mt ($454/mt) ex-Raipur and have gained INR 850/mt ($9/mt) to INR 39,800/mt ($444/mt) ex-Durgapur in the east.
The sources said that, while induction furnace operators across regions have hiked prices to offset the rise in input costs, this has been easily absorbed by the market with EPC’s resuming aggressive procurement, while retail sales have also witnessed improvements with real estate development sectors restocking good volumes as well.
“The market conditions looked good over the past week. Steady all-around buying helped the market absorb higher prices. It also helped producers to liquidate stocks at improved margins. The combination of higher large-volume buying as well as retail sales boosted the mood across market participants,” a Kolkata-based distributor said.
“The demand needs to sustain for the market to consolidate at these higher levels. We are cautiously optimistic that the upturn in supply-demand dynamics will hold in the medium term,” he added.
$1 = INR 89.60
