Local Indian rebar prices have continued to decline amid dual pressures from mills dropping prices to liquidate inventories and trade channels discounting sales to tide them over the lean monsoon season, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Tuesday, June 25.
Indian rebar trade prices are down INR 1,200/mt ($14/mt) to INR 49,000/mt ($587/mt) ex-Mumbai and have lost INR 800/mt ($10/mt) to INR 49,000/mt ($587/mt) ex-Chennai in the south.
Rebar trade prices are down INR 2,000/mt ($24/mt) to INR 44,300/mt ($531/mt) ex-Raipur and have decreased by INR 1,700/mt ($20/mt) to INR 43,800/mt ($525/mt) ex-Durgapur in the east.
“Prices are sliding so fast and for so many consecutive weeks that it impossible to forecast a bottom. Mills’ inventories are high and it is only a matter of time before induction furnace operators cut production to ease supply-side pressures. The monsoon rains are spreading across the country and slowing down real estate and urban construction projects, dampening demand,” a Kolkata-based distributor said.
“The prolonged price depression is a concern. But the bigger concern for producers and market participants is that there are no positive signals going forward. There were strong expectations for a government stimulus, but there are no signals of that from the new government so far,” he said.
According to an official at eastern India’s large long product producer, the average plant utilization level has come down to around 80 percent over the past two months, and weak demand coupled with the lean monsoon period may prompt mills to bring it down further to levels of 75 percent over the next one month.
$1 = INR 83.50