Indian DRI, billet and rebar update – 16 Apr

Spot trades in the Indian secondary steel market have noticed an upward trend today and prices have shot up by up to INR 2,100/t ($28), d-o-d basis.

According to SteelMint’s assessment, the domestic billet prices have increased by INR 100-1,900/t in all the markets, with a sharp hike of INR 1,400-1,900/t seen in the Western region- Jalna & Ahmedabad. In line with this, the rebar market has also observed a gain of INR 200-2,100/t nationwide.

In context to sponge iron, the market has noticed a surge of INR 200-700/t across regions with a major hike of INR 600-700/t at Southern India.

The prices have rallied on account of disturbed productions in Central & Western regions due to supply shortage of oxygen supplies. Hence the billet demand from the standalone as well hot charging rolling mills improved, leading to a spike in prices of across commodities. The Raipur-based manufacturers are largely selling billet to Jalna on premium prices compared to the trades in the local market.

Raw Material

• Karnataka based BMM Ispat offered raw pellets at INR 12,500/t exw Bellary (Up by INR 300/t).

Semi Finished

• Induction grade billet export offers further surge by $10/t to $565/t exw Durgapur, equivalent to $590-595/t CPT Nepal, however no fresh deals & buyers are waiting for price corrections as local finished steel demand in Nepal remains dull on higher price.
• Sponge P-DRI offers in Raipur slightly up by INR 200/t to INR 31,000/t exw & deals reported at INR 30,800-31,000/t on exw & FoR basis.
• Neo Metaliks in Durgapur has kept steel grade pig iron price firm at INR 39,000/t exw & few deals reported by officials.
• Jharsuguda, Odisha based sponge supplier offered FeM 80 P-DRI at around INR 31,000-31,100/t FoR Raipur.
• Bhaskar Steel and Ferro Alloy Ltd has offered billet at INR 42,000/t exw Badtumkela.
• Jajpur based, Visa Steels offered steel grade pig iron in local region at INR 39,000/t exw (Up by INR 500/t).
• Raigarh based steel manufacturers getting pig iron offers from Odisha at INR 39,700/t FoR Raigarh.
• BMM Ispat offered FeM 80 P-DRI lumps at INR 29,000/t exw Bellary (Up by INR 800/t).
• BIOP Steels in South India has offered FeM 80 C-DRI lumps at INR 29,400/t exw Bellary (Up by INR 400/t).

Rebar (12 mm)

• Metalics 550D TMT offers reported at INR 48,500/t exw Sambalpur (Up by INR 700/t).
• Vibrant TMT is offering at INR 50,700/t FoR Ahmedabad (Up by INR 2,400/t).
• Kalika TMT is offering at INR 53,000/t exw Jalna (Up by INR 2,000/t).
• ARS TMT(Fe 550 D) offer reported at INR 53,300/t exw Chennai.

Wire Rod and Structure

• Trade discounts in Raipur wire rod increased to INR 700-800/t followed by surge in base offers by INR 800/t to INR 48,000/t exw. Also, trade reference prices in Durgapur increased by INR 1,000/t to INR 46,800-47,000/t exw.
• Mid scale mill wire rod export offers rally by $10/t to $625/t exw Durgapur, equivalent to $650-655/t CPT Nepal. Meanwhile, demand slowdown on increasing prices, as per exporters.
• Raipur based heavy structure steel manufacturers, increase the base price of 150 mm channel by INR 1,000/t to INR 47,400/t, and given trade discount at INR 900-1,200/t, current trade reference price of 200 mm angle is at INR 49,300-49,600/t exw.

Reference prices as on 16th Apr’21