Indian Steel Market Weekly Snapshot

Indian Steel market remained quite uncertain for the week 4 (22-27 Jan, 2018) as the prices of Semis & Finished long steel fluctuated by INR 200-700/MT (USD 3-11), whereas Flat steel like HRC & HR Plate prices remains unaltered, according to SteelMint’s weekly price assessment.

However, the prices of key raw materials like Pellet & coking coal which were on rise, have moved down in the current week on weak demand amid improved supply.

Raw Material: In eastern regions of India, market participants reported fall in pellet offers amid decline in P-DRI prices. Durgapur pellet offers heard around INR 6600/MT, down by INR 300/MT W-o-W.

Central India pellet offers remained unaltered this week. Major pellet makers in Raipur are heard giving offers at INR 7,200/MT (ex-works, GST extra).

This week all the merchant miners in Odisha did not revise any prices of iron ore and remained stable. As per sources they all are waiting for 30th Jan’18 Supreme Court hearing of miners those who defaulted on penalty payment.

Indian imported scrap market witnessed a number of thin trades this week. Importers turned active as soon as offers showed slight downward correction by around USD 3-5/MT on W-o-W basis. Shredded scrap from USA booked in containers at USD 370/MT, CFR while HMS 1&2 (80:20) in containers offered at USD 340-345/MT, CFR from USA and West Africa. Few participants were looking for a further correction in bulk offers for Shredded scrap than current prevailing offers which were around USD 395/MT, CFR Nhava Sheva.

Coking Coal: Resumption of mining activity in Australia after New Year holidays has improved Coking Coal supply. Demand has softened as the buyers anticipated the prices to fall further. Continuing with the falling trend, spot prices of the Premium HCC have declined to around USD 212/MT FoB Australia. Market participants expect prices to fall to sub-200 levels before active buying resumes.

Semi Finished market : In a week duration, domestic Sponge iron offers fall by INR 200-500/MT & Billet offers fluctuated in the range of INR 200-700/MT (USD 3-11). In this period major fall in billet seen in Chennai, Southern India due to limited inquiries.

In major markets of Central & Eastern India, the pig iron market also registered price movement of around INR 200-500/MT. The private pig iron producers reported subdued demand on volatility in billet prices.

— Indian sponge iron export offers slightly decline by USD 5/MT (W-o-W). The latest offers are assessed at USD 385-390/MT CPT Benapole (land port of India & Bangladesh).

— SAIL has floated two export tenders for 10,800/MT billet from its Durgapur Steel plant and 8,100 MT from its IISCO Steel plant. Both the cargoes will be shipped from Haldia port. The material shipping is scheduled on 31 Mar’18. The due date for the bid submission was on 23rd Jan’18.

— Vizag Steel’s 30,000 MT billet export tender receives highest bid at slightly above USD 500/MT FoB, according to sources. Bids are in line with global market but far lower than domestic Indian billet prices.

Long Steel: Market sentiments observed to be slightly thin as trade activities were made on average basis and the supply movement was considered to be little bit low due to price variance in the week.

The current offer prices for 12 mm rebar are assessed – at INR 36,200-36,400/MT Ex-Raipur, INR 36,000-36,200/MT Ex-Durgapur & INR 39,300-39,400/MT Ex-Mumbai.

— In the week it was noticed that higher domestic wire rod prices has given an opportunity traders to explore import options. On CFR basis, the offers in India for Chinese Wire rod are hovering at around USD 585-590/MT, CFR India.

Flat Steel: Indian mills have kept the flat steel prices unchanged this week as per sources and they are planning for hike of around INR 1,000-1,500/MT amid supply constraints prevailing in domestic market. Also, landed cost of Chinese HRC imports to India is still costlier by around INR 1,500/MT than domestic prices in India. However HRC imports from Japan and South Korea is almost at par with prevailing domestic prices, however these countries have limited export allocations.

Currently trade reference prices (basic) for HRC (IS2062) 2.5 mm-8 mm are assessed in the range of INR 43,000/MT (ex-Mumbai), INR 43,000-44,000/MT (ex-Delhi),INR 43,000-44,000/MT (ex-Chennai).The prices mentioned above are basic prices excluding GST @ 18%.

Trade reference prices (basic) for CRC (IS513) 0.9mm is hovering in the range of INR 46,500-47,000/MT (ex-Mumbai) INR 47,000-47,500/MT (ex-Delhi) and INR 46,500-47,000/MT (ex-Chennai).The prices mentioned above are basic prices excluding GST@18%.

Indian Raw material and Finished Steel reference Prices as on 27 Jan 2018 (Week 04)

Prices are Ex-works, Exclusive of GST at 18%

Indian Export Reference Prices as on 27th Jan’18

Prices in USD/MT
Source: SteelMint Research