India: Mills keep coated flat steel prices unchanged for Nov'22 sales; trade market follows suit

Major coated flat steel producers have kept the list prices unchanged for November sales amid limited demand and weakening of substrate product prices. Meanwhile, weekly -assessed trade-level prices of pre-painted galvanised iron (PPGI) also stood unchanged, whereas those of galvanised plain (GP) coils dropped marginally, as on 4 November 2022.

Effective prices post-revision for November sales:

• AM/NS India: Post-revision list prices of GP (0.8mm, 80gsm) stand at around INR 67,500/t, while those of PPGI are at INR 79,500/t.
  
  
• JSW: Subsequent to the announcement, GP list prices stand at INR 68,800/t and PPGI at INR 80,000/t. Also, list prices of bare galvalume (BGL) coils 0.5mm, AZ70 stand at around INR 80,500/t and that for 0.5mm, AZ150 at INR 83,500/t.
  
  
• Prices mentioned above are on an exy-Mumbai basis, excluding GST @ 18%.
  
  

Factors keeping prices unchanged for November sales:

1. Trade level prices firm through Oct: Trade level prices of PPGI have remained firm in October, treading at around INR 76,500-77,500/t exy-Mumbai. The prices of GP hovered in the range of INR 67,000-68,000/t exy-Mumbai in October 2022, though the average price witnessed a drop of INR 400/t towards the month-end.

2. Slow yet steady demand from consuming industries: Comparing the past few months, demand has remained steady from end-user industrial buyers. Also, there was steady demand from the PEB and green energy segments and auto which led to restocking in late September when mills indicated a price increase for early-October sales. Moreover, the participants opine that demand for coated steel is likely to flow at the current pace in the near term.

"Offtakes are happening majorly from the green energy segments. Government projects are also gaining traction. However, the requirement is need-based as buyers are concerned about weakening of prices of input materials such as HRC and CRC in the near term," informed reliable sources. A point to note here is that major infrastructure and construction projects were slow over the first half of the current fiscal and are most likely to be expedited in the later half, they added.

3. Weakening prices of substrate materials: Prices of HRCs and CRCs, that are substrate products for value-addded coated steels, have continued to remain under pressure for some time now. In October, prices of HRCs (IS2062, 2.5-8mm) dropped to INR 56,300/t exy-Mumbai towards month-end contrasted against INR 57,500/t exy-Mumbai at the beginning of the month. On similar lines, prices of CRCs (IS513 Gr O, 0.9mm) dropped to INR 65,300/t exy-Mumbai in the month-end from INR 66,200/t exy-Mumbai in the first week of October.

As per the recent assessment on 2 November, 2022, prices of HRCs moved further down to INR 56,100/t exy-Mumbai (INR 200/t, w-o-w) and those of CRCs to INR 63,600/t exy-Mumbai(INR 1,700/t, w-o-w).

Trade-level prices largely unchanged in first week of Nov: The current week's assessment (4 November 2022) shows PPGI prices standing unchanged at INR 76,500-77,500/t exy-Mumbai. However, those of GP reported a marginal decline of INR 300/t w-o-w to INR 66,500-67,500/t exy-Mumbai. This was majorly because a few sellers quoted offers slightly lower to woo buyers to liquidate their inventories.