Indian plate prices rise higher with mills announcing a fourth hike

The domestic HR-plate price continues to soar after the major plate producing mills announced the fourth round of hike in their list prices amid rising raw material costs and hindrances in the supply channel.

Effective price hikes-

• SAIL- announced a further hike of INR 750/t in plates, effective price stands around INR 50,500-51,000/t exy-Mumbai.
• AMNS India- raised its list price by INR 1,500/t, effective prices now stand at INR 49,000/t exy-Mumbai.
• The mentioned prices are exclusive of GST @ 18%.

On the other hand, SteelMint’s benchmark assessment for the HR-plate stands at INR 53,000-54,000/t exy-Mumbai, up by INR 1,250/t on the week. Price is exclusive of GST @ 18%.

At the beginning of the month, major plates producers had increased their list prices by INR 2,000-2,500/t ($27-34), followed by the second hike of INR 1,500/t ($20), and the third by INR 750-1,000 ($10-14) in the previous week. The push for price hike came on the back of higher cost of production and supply constraints.

Factors driving the rally in HR-plate prices-

1. Hike in global plate prices- Improved domestic demand in China along with that in the overseas markets has led to six weeks of continual ascension of heavy plate export offers which now stands at $590-605/t FoB China basis.

2. Increase in cost of production- The cost of production has also gone up with the increase in iron ore prices. India’s state-owned iron ore miner – National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) has announced the price of hike in iron ore for Dec ’20. Prices have increased further by 14% for its Chhattisgarh based mines. Last month NMDC increased iron ore prices twice.