Local Indian rebar prices continued to surge on rapid restocking by trade channels and large bookings, received by integrated steel mills from engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) companies, ignoring the usual lull festivals holidays starting this week, indicating sustained positive mood in the market, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Tuesday.
Indian rebar trade price spurted INR 2,600/mt ($31/mt) to INR 49,700/mt ($592/mt) ex-Mumbai and surged INR 1,000/mt ($12/mt) at INR 48,500/mt ($577/mt) ex-Chennai in the south.
Rebar prices moved up INR1,000/mt ($12/mt) at INR 46,000/mt ($548/mt) ex-Raipur and up INR 1,200/mt ($14/mt) at INR 44,700/mt ($532/mt) ex-Durgapur in the east.
According to the sources, trade channels were restocking aggressively, ignoring the close of business for festivals holidays staring tomorrow expecting the price rise to continue and even gain momentum during ‘busy season of November-December.”
At the same time, large construction companies were committing large volume bookings with integrated mills, scheduling increased pace of project implementation in the coming months.
“The virtuous cycle to revived demand and higher prices has taken every market participant by surprise. Everyone is rushing to stock up to beat further price increases indicating that the uptrend will gain momentum and sustain over the next quarter,” a Kolkata based distributor said.
“Mills, secondary and integrated, have gone in for two consecutive base price increased over the past 2-3 weeks. We do not rule out mills going in for further hikes before end October. Inventories will tighten further by then offering sufficient head room for mills to push up prices even more. Revived demand will also support this,” he said.
Exchange rate: $1=INR 84.00