Longs price stayed supported essentially because of the recent production cuts from the larger mills which encouraged them to raise list prices by around INR 500/t ($6/t) earlier in the month. It may be recalled that rebar inventories had fallen to a three-month low of around 500,000 t in early March in a knee-jerk reaction to the cut in output by 80,000-100,000 t in February. Market sources hinted that rebar production from tier-1 mills may now fall by another 70,000-80,000 t in March-end. Supported by the above factors, trade-level blast furnace prices rose by INR 400/t ($5/t) to INR 52,400/t ($626/t).
