In line with SteelMint’s earlier report that Indian steel mills are likely to hike flat steel prices by INR 1000-1500/MT in March, two major steel mills have announced price hike of INR 1000/MT.
Two major Indian steelmakers namely- JSW Steel and SAIL have raised the flat steel prices by INR 1000/MT in March over supply constraints coupled with higher global flat steel prices and increase in coking coal prices.
Supply constraints triggers domestic flat steel prices – Firstly, tight supply is still pushing the domestic flat steel prices in upward direction. As SteelMint mentioned before that Tata Steel Kalinganagar plant is facing technical issue in their integrated blast furnace, Steel Melting Shop (SMS) and Hot Strip Mill (HSM) which lead to temporary shutdown of mill on 29 Jan’18. The repair work has been started and company will resume their operations by 23rd or 24th of Feb ’18. However actual production will come up from March.
Also higher global prices and lesser import bookings collectively contributed to rising flat steel prices in India’s domestic market.
Higher Australian coking coal prices -Secondly, Australian coking coal prices gained momentum over strong demand from Indian and Chinese buyers.Also in India,consumption of coking coal is bound to increase in future on rising steel production capacity by few major mills in India.
Thus,offers for the Premium HCC are now hovering at around USD 232.50/MT FoB Australia,which is heard at USD 246/MT CFR India. Coking coal prices have increased by about USD 18/MT in a month’s time.
As per sources, SAIL’s HRC prices after this hike is around INR 44,500/MT (ex-Mumbai) and that of JSW Steel is in the range of INR 44,500-45,000/MT (ex-Mumbai). The prices mentioned above are basic prices excluding GST @ 18%.
Price of CRC (IS513) 0.9mm offered by these mills is hovering in the range of INR 48,500-49,500/MT (ex-Mumbai).The prices mentioned above are basic prices excluding GST@18%.
However it will be interesting to know that whether the increased prices of flat steel shall be absorbed over slow demand in domestic market or not ?
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