Nepal: Steel mills hike rebar offers by $30/t on demand recovery post-elections
Nepal’s steel industry has witnessed a marginal recovery in end-user demand with resumption of government projects, post-national elections. Current rebars (12m...
Nepal's steel industry has witnessed a marginal recovery in end-user demand with resumption of government projects, post-national elections.
Current rebars (12mm) prices in Nepal are reported at around NPR 88,000-90,000/t ($670-690) exw, excluding VAT, up by around NPR 4,000/t ($30/t).
Market sources informed SteelMint that the Nepal-based mills have relatively improved their capacity utilisation on demand uptick and drop in steel inventories compared to the previous few weeks.
Import prices up tracking hike in Indian domestic offers
- There were no import export deals into Nepal for sponge iron lumps-based DRI (C-DRI), while only about one rake of pellets-based DRI (P-DRI) deal was concluded at $365-370/t loaded to wagon (LTW) from eastern India, equivalent to $385-390/t CPT Nepal. SteelMint's weekly price assessment rose by $5/t to $420-425/t CPT Nepal (FeM 80%, lumps 70%, fines 30%).
- Deals for about one rake of BF-route billets from India were reported at $560/t CPT Nepal. Fresh offers of IF-route billets from India stand at around $540/t exw-Durgapur (eastern India), up by $10-15 w-o-w. The freight costs to Nepal stand at $20-25/t. Domestic prices of billets in eastern India rose by INR 2,000/t ($24) w-o-w.
- A deal for controlled chemistry IF-route wire rods (SAE 1008) was reported for Nepal. However, prices could not be confirmed till the time of publishing this report. Moreover, current offers for BF-route wire rods were assessed at around $620/t CPT Nepal.
- Recently, about 10,000 t of HRC deals were reported from eastern India at around $605-610/t CPT Nepal.
Outlook: Domestic steel demand in Nepal may improve slightly in the upcoming days because winter is a favourable season for construction. Moreover, labourers are also expected to return, since both the holidays and the country's general elections are over.
With steel demand of roughly 2.5 mnt per annum, Nepal has been focusing a lot on reconstruction. The country's construction sector is said to contribute 10-11% to its GDP. In addition, Nepal imports nearly 1-1.5 mnt of semi-finished steel and 1 mnt of finished steel annually (both flats and longs) with India being the largest supplier with a share of ~95%.
To know more about changing market dynamics in Nepal's steel industry, book your seat at the 2nd Nepal Trade Summit, to be held on 1-2 March, 2023.
