India: SteelMint's billet index slips by INR 100/t on weak buying activity - 6 Oct

SteelMint's billet index edged down by INR 100/tonne (t) to INR 43,900/t exw-Raipur on 6 October, 2023.

The billet index witnessed a modest decline today, primarily due to weak demand in the semi-finished steel segment. This slowdown can be attributed to the presence of higher offers in the market and a significant number of material bookings that had already been placed in the past few days. Consequently, these factors influenced buyer's behaviour, resulting in a decline in trade volumes day-on-day (d-o-d).

About 600 t of billet deals were concluded today compared to 4,800 t on 5 October.

Today, the prices of finished steel products remained largely steady, thanks to strong buying activity observed throughout the day. Price of rebar inched up by INR 100/t, while wire rod prices remained constant d-o-d. Additionally, sponge iron prices saw a marginal rise of INR 100/t in Raipur today.

Around 990 t of wire rod and 3,300 t of rebar transactions were concluded in Raipur today.

The conversion spread from sponge iron (PDRI) to billets of the standalone furnaces in Raipur was recorded at INR 13,150/t.

Rationale -

This index has been derived based on transactions, offers, bids and indicative price data sets. Transactions are considered as T1 and given a weightage of 50% whereas other data sets are considered as T2 and given a weightage of the balance 50%.

• Transactions (T1) - Three trades at INR 43,900-44,000/t were recorded during 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm as per SteelMint trading window and considered for final price calculation as T1 inputs. The average of these transactions was INR 43,917/t which is given a 50% weightage in the final price calculation.
  
  
• Other price indicators - bids/offers/indicative (T2) - Twelve offers were reported in the trading window and considered as T2 inputs. The average price of these twelve was INR 43,929/t and given a 50% weightage in the final price calculation.
  
  

The final price for billet exw Raipur was at INR 43,923/t exw, rounded to INR 43,900/t exw.

Click for detailed methodology

T1 - Trade, T2 - Offer/Bid/Indicative, *Normalized price as per methodology