India: SAIL, JSW Keeps Re-bar Prices Unchanged for April - Sources

Indian large scale producers, JSW Steel & Steel Authority of India (SAIL) have rolled over re-bar prices for Apr 2018 deliveries, SteelMint learned from market sources. Prior to this, during Mar 2018 producers had raised prices by around INR 1,000/MT (USD 15).

The current Rebar offers are reported at around INR 44,000-44,500/MT (USD 677-685) ex-Mumbai & INR 45,000-45,500/MT (USD 692-700) ex-Delhi for 12-32 mm, excluding 18% GST.

According to sources, prices have been kept unchanged owing to lower export bookings and relatively lower prices of Iron ore and coal in domestic and global market.

What made large producers to keep prices unchanged

1. Higher price difference between medium and large steel producers, which have increased to INR 5,000-6,000/MT against an average of INR 3,500-4,000/MT.

2. Lower export bookings by Indian mills in the month of March as Chinese mills resume operations post winter cuts.

3. Domestic steel prices are trading at a premium of around USD 35-40/MT. Global prices have corrected in last few weeks but domestic Indian prices have not.

Indian re-bar production

India produces around 35-36 MnT of bars & rods annually, out of which large players (top 5) produces around 12-13 MnT & medium and smaller players produce 23-24 MnT annually.