March, 2024 saw the spread between benchmarked hot rolled coils (HRCs) and blast furnace-route rebar narrowing to a four-month low of INR 700/t ($8/t), reveals data maintained with BigMint. The gap tightened further m-o-m mainly on account of the slight resilience shown by rebars which actually gained by INR 300/t ($4/t) while HRCs eroded by a sharp INR 1,100/t ($13/t). Trade-level HRCs, ex-Mumbai, fell to INR 52,800/t ($633/t) against INR 53,900/t ($645/t) in February. On the other hand, the benchmark blast furnace (BF)-route rebar, ex-Mumbai, rose m-o-m to INR 52,100/t ($625/t) from INR 51,800/t ($621/t). In rebar, the continuous fall since October 2023 was arrested in March, whereas HRCs have been seeing an unabated fall since the last six months, buffeted by excess supply, and dull home and away demand.
