JSW Steels, India’s largest private steel manufacturer is expected to raise its long steel prices for the coming month. According to officials, the company may increase prices by upto INR 1,000/MT (USD 15) for Dec’17 deliveries.
Current prices for 12-25mm re-bars by large producers are assessed at around INR 33,500-34,000/MT (USD 515-523/MT) & Wire rod at INR 38,000-38,500/MT (USD 584-592/MT) ex-Mumbai, excluding GST @ 18%. Prices may increase to INR 35,000/MT & INR 39,000-39,500/MT, respectively in Dec’17, if company increases its prices.
According to participants, other large manufacturers may also take a price hike.
Driving factor
Large steel makers are considering to increase their prices on account of rising steel prices in spot market, which is largely dominated by small and medium steel mills which use induction furnace route.
Notably, medium producers have increased their prices by upto INR 3000/MT (USD 46/MT) in last one month. This price hike is attributed to increased exports of induction grade billets and low inventories of iron ore and coal with mills.
India produces about 43 MnT of long products, out of which 65-70 % comes from medium/small units and 30-35% comes from large steel producers.
Interestingly long steel exports from India has also increased, since China is absent from export market for quite some time. SteelMint learned that mills have decent queries for wire rod and re-bars exports.
Overall Semi finish (Billet, Bloom and Slab) exports from India also boost in CY 2017 and are reported at around 2.1 MnT till Nov-end which was about 1.75 MnT in CY 2016 (Jan-Dec). In which the large players sells near to 70% quantity, according to data maintained by SteelMint Stats.
JSW’s Long Steel Output Fall
JSW steel produced Finished Steel (Non Alloy) around 12.009 MnT of steel during Apr-Oct’17, out of which 10.66 MnT was Flat and 1.34 MnT was Long.
Large steel mills have cut down their long steel production as they are getting higher realizations in flat steel.
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