SteelMint: Raipur billet index rises on improved enquiries, tight supplies – 16 Mar

SteelMint’s daily steel billet index is assessed at INR 56,900/tonnes (t) (+INR 1,900) exw Raipur on 16 Mar’22.

About 3,675 t of transactions in billets were recorded by SteelMint today as against 2,750 t on 15 Mar’22.

The index recovered on improvement in spot trades as well as expected tight supplies of billets post announcement of power cuts in Raigarh, central India, where about 40% of power cuts have started and production will be affected for the coming four-five days, sources informed SteelMint.

Thus, with supply disturbance looming, billet producers have kept prices high and a few deals were settled on higher offers during the first half today. However, later in the day, a correction in prices in Punjab, north India, turned buyers cautious and ultimately bids on higher offers slowed down.

Industry sources are expecting that with improvement in demand after the Holi holidays, prices of semis are likely to remain strong due to steep raw material prices.

Rationale –

This index has been derived based on transactions, offers, bids and indicative price data sets. Transactions are considered as T1 and given a weightage of 50% whereas other data sets are considered as T2 and given a weightage of the balance 50%.

• Transactions (T1) – Four trades were recorded in the 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm SteelMint trading window and considered for final price calculation as T1 inputs. Out of these one trade was recorded at INR 57,500/t, and one deal each at INR 57,200/t, INR 57,000/t, and INR 56,800/t. The average price of these four transactions was INR 56,908/t and given a 50% weightage in the final price calculation.
• Other Price Indicators – bids/offers/indicative (T2) –Ten offers reported in the trading window and considered as T2 inputs. The average price of these 10 was INR 56,938/t and given a 50% weightage in the final price calculation.

The final price for billet exw Raipur was at INR 56,923/t, rounded to INR 56,900/t exw.

Click for detailed methodology

T1 – Trade, T2 – Offer/Bid/Indicative, *Normalized price as per methodology