Nepal's domestic rebar prices surge on active demand and rising billet import offers

Local mills in Nepal reported a hike in rebar prices by NPR 2,000/t ($17), w-o-w, on account of rising billet import offers from India & active domestic demand.

The current rebar offers are assessed at around NPR 84,000/t ($709) through the mid-sized plants & NPR 87,000-88,000/t ($735-743) through the major mills/premium brands. The prices are exw, excluding VAT, ED & size 10-16 mm.

Recently, the Nepalese government has announced lockdown restrictions in a few districts till 13th May. Our sources shared that demand would get affected if lockdown is imposed in remaining locations.

Meanwhile, as per mill owners, demand was active for a few days as small traders procured material to pile up stocks, so that they can easily sell material. Construction activities also remained active, which in turn ensured sufficient orders.

In addition, with a surge in imported billet prices, the local rebar prices spiked, SteelMint learned.

As per SteelMint's assessment, IF grade billet import offers to Nepal have risen by $20-25 in a week & currently is hovering at $570/t exw Eastern India, equivalent to $595-600/t CPT Nepal, via road delivery. Also, it is observed that, a primary mill recently sold about 2 rakes of blast furnace grade billet at around $630-640/t CPT Nepal. However, it was unconfirmed from supplier end till the publishing this article.

Outlook

The industry leaders believe that the Nepalese Government may soon announce a total lockdown in the country due to a continued surge in Covid cases.

Analysing this, the exporters believe that Indian export demand for IF grade billet & wire rod will slow down which may impact prices in Eastern India.

On an average, Nepal's monthly billet imports from India is 100,000-125,000 t, while wire rod is at 20,000-25,000 t.