SteelMint’s daily steel billet (100x100mm, IS 2831:2012) index for Raipur in Chhattisgarh, a key induction furnace (IF) steel market, witnessed trade volumes at around 90,000 t in Oct’21. Trade volumes fell by nearly 15%, month-on-month, compared to more than 102,000 t in Sep, as per SteelMint data.
Healthy demand from the re-rolling mills kept the index elevated in the first half of Oct. The semi-finished steel market recorded a sharp rise in prices due to supply shortage and robust demand for finished steel, with subsequent lowering of trade discounts for long steel products. This naturally led to a surge in demand for billets.
Index tumbles
However, falling coal prices impacted the prices of metallics. Domestic billet prices dropped as the induction furnace long steel market witnessed a price correction of up to INR 3,500/t in the third week of Oct.
Prices came under pressure following the decline in raw material offers along with improvement in the supply of sponge iron. Billet buyers desisted from bookings waiting for prices to fall.
Domestic billet prices fluctuated in the range of INR 200-1,800/t in the last week of Oct, while sponge iron offers fell sharply. Moreover, the induction furnace long steel market saw prices declining in the central and western regions of the country.
The index kept drifting down towards end Oct on sluggish demand in the spot market due to poor offtake of finished steel products. The index was recorded at an elevated level of INR 47,000/t on 1 Oct before peaking to INR 48,900/t on 14 Oct. However, the index tumbled to below INR 46,000/t on the last day of the month.
SteelMint assessed the weighted average price of 100mm billet at INR 47,202/t exw-Raipur in Oct, an increase of more than 10% compared to INR 42,200/t in Sep.
Billet index
SteelMint’s daily billet index records transactions and offers by both Raipur-based players as well as billet producers from other key markets such as Odisha, Raigarh. It provides a precise and mathematically accurate assessment for traders through close monitoring of price movements.
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