Indian steel prices dropped by upto INR 700/t on Monday amid limited trade volumes being reported across regions. SteelMint’s daily billet index fell by INR 400/t to close at INR 42,900/t exw Raipur.
The daily scrap index dropped by around INR 800/t due to two main reasons. One was that, with many states on the verge of coming out of lockdown, capacity utilisation and supplies are expected to improve and second was that NMDC had rolled over its iron ore prices for Jun ’21 when market had been expecting a hike. Notably NMDC is the largest merchant miner in India with share of 15 to 20% in India’s total production.
Indian mills resume HRC export offers for Vietnam
Indian mills are also reported to have resumed export offers to Vietnam after a gap of over two weeks. Mills are testing markets at around $1025-1050/t CFR Vietnam levels. However, markets do not expect active trades taking place now, when country is under lockdown and local mills are yet to open their offers.
Over all, the outlook for the month of June looks subdued both for longs as well as flats. Margins are likely to be squeezed. Mills are hopeful that July would be better when lockdowns are lifted.
Chinese steel futures fell sharply yesterday and closed lower by ~4% against last Friday’s close. In today’s morning trading sessions, steel futures have exhibited further declines.
Prices as on 8:45 IST, 8th June. d-o-d changes indicated against closing price of 07th June
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