India’s leading ERW pipe manufacturer is likely to hike pipe prices by INR 2,000/t ($27) in the first week of May ’21. The increase in price is attributed to an uptick in Hot-Rolled Coil prices. The effective trade offer as of week 17 of CY ’21 by India’s largest structural steel tubes manufacturer, APL Apollo Tubes Limited, for base grade ERW pipes(25-125 NB, 2.2-6 mm thickness) is assessed at INR 65,000/t (exy-Delhi), INR 66,250/t (exy-Mumbai) and INR 64,000/t (exy-Raipur). Prices do not include GST @ 18%.
A pipe distributor from Raipur stated, “The major pipe mill , APL Apollo Tubes Limited is planning to announce another price hike by around INR 2,000/t in the first week of May, considering the upside in flat steel prices and tight supply”.
As of week 17 of CY 2021, Tata Tubes is reported to be booking coil-based pipes at INR 66,000/t (ex-Jharkhand) for April ’21 deliveries, compared to the last revised price in Mar ’21 at INR 61,000/t. Prices do not include GST @ 18%.
Uptick in HRC price leads to hike in ERW pipe prices-Domestic Indian HRC and CRC trade prices continue to remain at an all-time high post announcement of a third price hike by major steel mills for April deliveries.
SteelMint’s benchmark prices for 2.5mm thickness HRC stands at INR 64,500-65,500/t and CRC at INR 77,000-78,000/t (exy-Mumbai). The prices mentioned are basic and GST extra @18% is applicable. Steel producers may again follow the repeat trend seen a year ago to increase the export allocations if domestic sales are impacted by frequent lockdowns. Also, higher realizations in exports on a bullish global market continues to have an edge over domestic price.
Second Covid wave to be a short-term dampener in real estate sector-When the real estate sector was on the verge of recovering, the second wave of Covid-19 has hit but it is anticipated that the restrictions might not continue for long. Sales of residential properties across eight major cities grew 44% in the March quarter this year to nearly 72,000 units.
However, the partial shutdown in Maharashtra in the month of April has affected the construction activity in the state as there has been shortage of labour workforce being faced by the real estate players. Thus, restricted movement of people would lead to reduced footfalls and is expected to affect the April 2021 property sales in Mumbai and Pune. “The surge in Covid-19 cases may derail real estate from the recovery path and the demand for residential real estate in India might be thrown off track”, said head of industry body, CREDAI.
Short term Outlook-
The demand for the residential real estate industry, which was just beginning to show signs of recovery, may adversely be affected by the drastic increase in the number of new coronavirus cases from April 2021 onwards, leading to lockdowns in many cities across India, thereby affecting the demand for ERW pipes in near term.
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