SAIL which recently announced its quarterly results has seen a sales growth of 8.6% in Flat Steel products during Q3 FY14. The company has reported a rise in its Profit after Tax (PAT) by 10 % owing to better realization. Total sales in this period rose to 2.9 MnT. SAIL has raised its product prices by around INR 1,500/MT gradually in the past few months.
Currently, SAIL’s HRC (2.5 mm) price in Ludhiana is hovering at INR-43,000-44,000/MT (including ED, taxes extra), whereas price for Cold Rolled Coil (CRC) is in the range of around INR 47,000-48,000/MT (including ED, taxes extra). SAIL raised its prices by INR 500-650/MT in the beginning of February. In last 2-3 months, other manufacturers like JSW, Essar and JSPL have also hiked their prices.
SAIL has produced 1.8 MnT of Flat Steel products in the quarter ending December. Import of HRC has seen a gradual decline as shown in the table below.
|
Oct’13 |
Nov’13 |
Dec’13 |
|
|
SAIL’s Production |
655 |
553 |
616 |
|
Import of HRC |
83 |
66 |
69 |
Qty in ‘000 MT
Low Imports of HRC
Low import of HRC has helped domestic players like SAIL to pass on this price hike to their end consumers. Importers based in West Coast of India confirmed that import offers for HRC is bit higher against domestic Flat Steel prices. This might have helped the domestic players to keep their prices high.
As per our sources based in Ludhiana, SAIL has exhausted its entire inventory in this region. However, TATA which is one of its closest competitors in this market is strengthening its inventory in this region. Some traders speculate that lower availability of Flat Steel products manufactured by other major players might have helped SAIL to increase its sales in some markets.
Leave a Reply