Nepal: Demand Improves for Indian Billet & Wire Rod; Deals Reported

With the end of festive mood in the country, the major mills in Nepal have resumed purchases from India and as per trade sources in eastern India, healthy volumes were booked to Nepal this week.

As per India's largest steel producer, demand is recovering from the major mills in Nepal as they don't have much stock for the raw materials i.e. Billet & Wire rod, hence they bid aggressively for Indian blast furnace grade as well induction grade steel.

On an around, a primary Indian steel mill has booked around 4 rakes (about 11,000 MT) Billets (Blast furnace grade) to Nepal for Nov-Dec'19 deliveries and the average deal price reported at near to USD 400/MT CPT Raxaul border, Nepal.

Also the mill has sold 2 rakes of Wire rod, around 5,500 MT (grade SAE 1008, 6.0 mm) for exports to Nepal at around USD 455/MT CPT Raxaul border.

Further as per close sources report, few other deals are under negotiation, which are expected to be concluded very soon.

"As the offers from secondary mills climbed, the major buyers in Nepal have turned towards blast furnace grade steel. At present landed cost of induction grade & blast furnace grade steel is more or less similar for Nepalese mills" cited by an official of Indian large mill.

Meanwhile the latest export offers of induction grade Billet is assessed at around USD 375/MT & for commercial grade Wire rod at USD 420-425/MT ex-mill at Durgapur, this is equivalent to USD 400/MT & USD 450/MT, respectively, CPT Raxaul border.

Participants believe export demand to remain supported as there will be active construction works due to favorable weather conditions.