India: BF-rebar trade prices drop w-o-w by INR 300/t ($4/t) amid weak demand

Trade-level blast furnace (BF) rebar prices witnessed downtick across major markets owing to weak domestic demand. Current rebar prices (12-32mm, Fe500D and Fe550D) in the trade segment have dropped by INR 300/t ($4/t) on the week to INR 57,800/t ($692/t) exy-Mumbai. Prices are exclusive of GST at 18%.

In the projects segment, prices are hovering around INR 56,500-57,500/t ($676-688/t) landed Mumbai basis. "Inquiries are coming from buyers meanwhile, sales transactions are very less," informed market sources.

Factors behind market dynamics:

1. IF-rebar prices fall w-o-w: Induction Furnace (IF) route rebar trade prices witnessed a drop of INR 600/t ($7/t) w-o-w to average of INR 51,400/t ($615/t) exw-Mumbai this week. Buyers procured at lower price levels and trading activities were limited as bid-offer disparity weighed on the market sentiments. Sellers offered trade discounts to liquidate their inventories. Prices of billet and sponge iron have also fallen on weekly basis. The inventory days of IF-rebars have increased to more than 10 days in June against 8-10 days in the preceding month.

The gap between BF-IF rebars widened further this month to around INR 6,000-6,500/t ($72-78/t) as compared to INR 5,000-5,500/t ($60-66/t) in the preceding month.

2. Raw material prices show mixed trends: Prices of key steel-making raw materials, iron ore fines, remained range-bound while coking coal prices rose on weekly basis. BigMint's weekly Odisha iron ore fines Fe62% index edged down w-o-w by INR 50/t ($0.6/t) to INR 5,450/t ($65/t) ex-mines. Prices remained largely stable amid weak market sentiments and trading activities slowed down during the week.

On the other hand, Australian premium hard coking coal (PHCC) prices rose on the week by $7/t to $274/t CNF Paradip in February as compared with $267/t CNF in the week ago period. Prices increased amid scarcity of coal for July loading.