The local Indian rebar market has showed wide divergent trends across markets amid some large secondary mills increasing base pricing citing input cost rises, while trade channels in some regions have been pushing discounted sales at a time of falling activity at the retail end, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Tuesday, January 2.
Sources said that trade rebar prices have gained INR 400/mt ($5/mt) to INR 48,900/mt ($588/mt) ex-Mumbai but have lost INR 800/mt ($10/mt) to INR 47,500/mt ($571/mt) ex-Chennai in the south.
Rebar trade prices are up INR 300/mt ($4/mt) to INR 43,500/mt ($523/mt) ex-Raipur but are down INR 300/mt ($4/mt) to INR 42,700/mt ($513/mt) ex-Durgapur in the east.
“There is no definite trend in the market amid overall bearish sentiments. Producers are increasing prices, while buyers are cautious as regards the demand forecast and are reducing commitments,” a Kolkata-based distributor said.
“Overall, we expect prices to either remain range-bound or slowly seek lower levels and there are no positive drivers in user industries. For example, the real estate sector is reporting robust sales of residential units, but these are mostly from existing inventories and not the launch of new projects that can drive demand. At the same time, tender-based sales of large mills are slowing down as construction projects are being impacted by the end of the fiscal funding crunch,” he said.
$1 = INR 83.20
