Indian Mills Announce Finish Long Steel Prices for May

Indian state & government owned major steel mills have announced long steel prices for May deliveries. Few major mills have rolled-over while others have slightly reduced prices of finish long steel products for May'19, in line with SteelMint's previous report.

As per sources, Vizag Steel - a long steel producer based in southern India has reduced prices by up to INR 500/MT (USD 7), meanwhile SAIL & JSW Steel are learned to have roll-over rebar prices and are expected to provide discounts in coming days, as per SteelMint conversion with officials & dealers as well.

Following factors could have kept prices under pressure:

Limited demand with secondary (mid sized) mills - Finish long steel prices has been narrowed down in overall regions amid lack of material lifting through associates i.e. traders/retailers and in line attractive discounts offered by industrialists to achieve the sales volume upon booking quantity for regular parties.

Amid limited demand, rebar price range has been slashed by INR 700-800/MT (USD 10-12) in most of the regions during Apr'19.

However, in line with semi finish (billet) prices, it remains inched up in most of the regions except couple of parts i.e. south (Chennai) & western India (Gujarat), as per assessment.

Sufficient inventories - Stock levels may vary as per regions where its been notified with average or slightly above to average in stock yard, as per sources.

Increasing production - Large mills production have been moved up by 7-21% company wise and registered at 211,000 MT (+9.9%) by SAIL, 174,000 MT (+7.4%) by RINL, 210,000 MT (+12.2%) by TSL, 251,000 MT (+16.7%) by JSWL, 90,000 MT (+21.6%) by JSPL & 1,407,000 MT (+39.4%) through the medium/small scale producers. The change in figures have been recorded of Mar'19 against on Feb'19.

Limited funds allocation - Limited funds allocation in construction sector amid ongoing elections where govt. projects observed at slow pace is one of the major factors to keep prices stable by major Indian steel makers, as per officials/sources.

Current trade reference rebar prices for 12-25 mm is around at INR 40,500/MT Ex-Chennai, INR 40,800/MT Ex- Ahmadabad, INR 41,500/MT Ex- Hyderabad, excluding GST.