India: Steel mills roll over coated flat steel list prices for Jan'25

• Mills roll over coated flat steel tags for Jan'25
  
  
• Buyers negotiating at lower levels in traders' market
  
  

A few Indian coated flat steel producers recently announced a roll over of their list prices for January 2025 as against early December 2024 after a week's delay. The effective list price of galvanised plain (GP, 0.8mm, 120gsm, IS277) coils stood at INR 58,000-59,250/tonne ($670-684/t) ex-Mumbai, while pre-painted galvanised iron (PPGI, 0.5mm, 90gsm, IS14246) coils were at INR 68,000-69,250/t ($785-800/t) ex-Mumbai for January.

The current weekly assessment on 16 January, showed GP (0.8mm / CTL, 120gsm, IS277) steel prices at INR 56,400/t ($651/t) exy-Mumbai in the range of INR 55,500-57,000/t ($641-658/t). Similarly, the pre-painted galvanised iron (PPGI, 0.5mm / CTL, 90gsm, IS14246) assessment stood at INR 66,400/t ($767/t) exy-Mumbai between INR 65,500-67,000/t ($756-774/t). Prices exclude GST at 18%. (USD 1 = INR 86.5961 ; INR 1 = USD 0.0115479)

Monthly average trade-level prices of GP (0.8mm / CTL, 120gsm, IS277) dropped INR 500/t ($6/t) m-o-m to average INR 57,600/t ($670/t) exy-Mumbai in December 2024. Meanwhile, average monthly prices of PPGI (0.5mm / CTL, 90gsm, IS14246) fell by INR 600/t ($7/t) m-o-m to INR 66,600/t ($775/t) exy-Mumbai. The prices mentioned above exclude GST at 18%. (USD 1 = INR 85.9245 ; INR 1 = USD 0.0116381)

Other updates:

Traders' market reflects low buying interest: Distributors complained about low buying interest in the market, evidenced by the need-based low-volume inquiries and sales in the traders' market.

"Buyers continue to procure as per their urgent requirements and bargain for lower prices against distributor quotes." said a source from western India.

"A major mill has booked most of its allocations for January with big business houses in the infrastructure and the construction segment, leading to a supply disruption in the traders' market. This lent support to distributors in maintaining their offers for the last fortnight," a north India-based distributor said.

Production of coated flats on the rise: Production volumes of coated finished flat steel products have shown an incline for three consecutive months till November 2024, as per Joint Plant Committee data. Mills have produced 1.166 million tonnes (mnt) of galvanised steel coils in November, which was 1.154 mnt in October and 1.042 mnt in September. The data for December is expected to be published by the next weekend.

The construction business houses compensated for the temporary drop in demand from automobile companies in November and December 2024. Automobile producers generally take their annual maintenance or keep their production volumes low towards the end of the calendar year (CY).

The anticipated boost in government projects, especially in the infrastructure and construction domain has propelled producers to churn out more value-added products, and the production shall stay around similar levels in the upcoming couple of months, an industry participant informed. Meanwhile, the automobile giants shall also start increasing their production in the CY 2025 which would add to the demand, he added.

India's manufacturing Purchasing Manager's Index (PMI) also relayed optimism. It rose slightly by 0.9 percentage points to 57.4% in December 2024, as per the HSBC, S&P Global PMI data.

Outlook:

Trade-level coated flat steel prices should continue to hover at similar levels in the near term. Demand from pre-engineered building (PEB) and other infrastructure-construction businesses is expected to rise in the final quarter of the fiscal year (FY) 2025. The increase in automobile production shall add to the demand for coated flats in the upcoming few months. However, the tussle with low-volume buying interest in the traders' markets might keep prices from increasing at a rapid pace.