Weekly: Indian steel market snapshot

Indian spot steel trades in the secondary market remained limited over week 40. This resulted in volatility in prices and fall in production through the mid scale mills on account of the drop in margins.

As per the assessment, semi-finished & finished long steel prices fluctuated by INR 100-600/t. However major Indian mills announced a sharp hike in flat steel prices for Oct’20.

Iron Ore & Pellets

• SAIL conducted an auction for 104,000 t and 28,000 t iron ore fines (Fe 61.3%-61%) from its Barsua and Dalli Rajhara mines in Odish and Chhattisgarh respectively on 30th Sept 2020. The entire quantity received bids for Barsua at INR 2,500/t (Loaded to wagon, taxes extra) on base price and Rajhara mines at INR 3,580/t (loaded into rakes and including royalty) against the base price INR 2,500/t as per sources.
• SteelMint domestic pellet index “PELLEX” down further by INR 300/t to INR 8,400/t DAP Raipur, amid limited buying inquiries during the week. SteelMint’s price assessment for other key markets like Durgapur, Bellary have fallen by INR 100-500/t w-o-w.
• SteelMint’s pellet export index (FoB east coast India) has increased by $5/t w-o-w to $120/t on Wednesday (i.e 30th Sept) in the recent deals concluded by the pellet makers and traders so far this week. Four pellet export deals were heard to be concluded this week. Southern India based pellet maker – KIOCL has concluded the export tender for about 50,000 t pellets (Fe 64% and 2% Al) at $122-124/DMT FoB India and is likely booked for non-Chinese destination.

Coal

• Latest offers for the Premium HCC grade are assessed at around $139.00/t FOB Australia, $148.50/t CNF China and $151.25/t CNF India.

Ferrous Scrap

• Indian imported scrap trades remained quiet throughout this week with limited inquiries from the buyers’ side. SteelMint’s assessment for shredded scrap in containers of UK origin stands at $310/t CFR Nhava Sheva, down by $2/t w-o-w.
• Prices have declined and are hovering at two-months low, according to data maintained with SteelMint.
• Scrap traders cited no significant deals this week as buyers are expecting further price correction in the near term, considering the decline in Turkish imported scrap prices.

Ferro Alloys

• Indian silico manganese prices fell at the start of the week amidst oversupply and dull demand. However, after MOIL increased prices for Oct’20, producers in Raipur increased their offer levels back to INR 60,000/t.
• Prices of ferro manganese remained stable in Durgapur at INR 61,000/t. Meanwhile, prices in Raipur increased after MOIL’s price revision to INR 62,000-63,000/t.
• Indian ferro chrome prices have come down in this week amidst weak export market and few producers in urgent need for cash concluding deals in the domestic market at lower levels.
• Indian ferro silicon prices have been stable for weeks now, however, the demand is quite low now as all the major buyers have fulfilled their requirement.

Semi Finished

On weekly basis, Indian Semi finished (Billet) steel market observed volatility in prices on fluctuating demand by INR 100-500/t, similarly Sponge offers fluctuate by INR 100-300/t w-o-w.

• SAIL has scheduled an auction for around 1,400 t steel grade pig iron from its Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) Odisha on 07 Oct’20.
• SAIL conducted an auction for around 6,000 t steel grade pig iron on 1st Oct from its Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP), Chhattisgarh & the entire material got booked at INR 26,600-27,100/t exw.
• Vedanta Limited has kept its pig iron offer unchanged for Oct’20 month sales. The current offer for foundry grade stands at INR 35,000/t del Gujarat.
• Induction grade billet export offers stable this week at around $395-397/t exw Durgapur, equivalent to $420-422/t CPT Nepal, via road delivery.
• Indian sponge iron (80 FeM, 100% lumps) export offers slump by $10-15/t, w-o-w, to $290/t CPT Benapole, equivalent to $305/t CFR Chittagong, Bangladesh.
• Pig iron prices drop further by INR 200-600/t on account of improved availability & dull demand. The major price corrections were observed in Raipur & Durgapur by INR 500-600/t, w-o-w.

Finished Longs

India’s secondary finish long steel market observed mixed response in this week, as in the starting of week limited buying inquiries makes the manufacturers either to hold or marginally decline their offers, but it’s being noticed that from last couple of days demand improve and trade activity pick up in the market by which producers have also increase their offers as per the inventories in their mill, so by all these factors, rebar prices w-o-w basis have fluctuated by INR 100-500/t in most of the locations.

• Mid scale mills wire rod export offers slightly up by $2-3/t to around $440-445/t exw Durgapur, equivalent to $465-470/t CPT Nepal.
• Trade reference rebar prices (12-25mm) through midsized mills assessed at INR 32,100-32,400/t exw Raipur, INR 33,300-33,600/t exw-Jalna.
• Trade discount given by Raipur based heavy structure manufacturers is at INR 900-1,200/t and the trade price of 200 Angle is at INR 36,100-36,500/t exw.
• Trade discount in Raipur wire rod is around at INR 1,000/t and trade reference prices stood at INR 32,800-33,200/t exw Raipur, INR 32,400-32,800 Durgapur, size 5.5 mm.
• Tata Steel Limited (Tubes) has increased structural pipe price by INR 1,000/t for Oct’20 bookings. Current offers are at INR 47,500/t ($649) FoR Jamshedpur (eastern India).
• Surya Roshni Limited secured a domestic order aggregating to INR 272.86 crore (excluding GST) for supplying coated API line pipes to GAIL and IGGL for North-East gas grid pipe line projects on 27 September, 2020.

Finished Flats

• All major steel producers have announced a sharp hike of INR 1,000-2,500/t in HRC and CRC prices for Oct ’20 delivery, on grounds of better demand outlook and supply concerns in the domestic market along with lower volumes of imports.
• In trade segment, HRC (IS 2062, 2.5- 8mm) prices are assessed at INR 41,250-41500/t (exy-Mumbai), INR 41,500-42,000/t (exy-Delhi), while INR 42,000-42,500/t (exy-Chennai).
• SteelMint’s assessment for CRC (0.9 mm IS513 GR) is at INR 50,000-50,500/t (exy-Mumbai), INR 50,000- 51,000/t (exy-Delhi), and INR 50,000- 51,000/t (exy-Chennai).
  Above mentioned prices do not include GST extra @18%.

Reference Prices as on 3rd Oct’20 (Week 40)

Prices are Exw & exclusive of GST

Indian export reference prices as on 3rd Oct’20

Prices in USD/MT
Source: SteelMint Research