Plate and rebar drop by $13/MT and $11/MT
Prices of finished steel in India has further dropped like a ton of bricks and the trade is not expecting any improvement after the Christmas and Year-end holidays.
Plate prices dropped by US$13/MT while imported scrap was down by US$11/MT for the weekended 23 Dec 2023.
Billet prices were under pressure as rebar prices dropped by US$8/MT.
“There is a clear lack of demand for finished steel and there are less expectations of the situation changing even after the holidays,” Wirana Shipping Corp said in its weekly report.
IMF has reclassified India’s foreign exchange regime to be a “stabilized arrangement” from a formerly “floating system” due to excessive central bank interference. However, the central bank disagrees with the view.
Indian Rupee this year only depreciated by about 2% compared to 8% depreciation in prior 12 months.
“With the local steel market expected to be slow in the near short term, there would be caution exercised by ship recyclers in making fresh purchases (thus a few speculative deals seen in previous weeks may not be seen as much for next few weeks),” said the report.
Prices could be at about same reduced levels and under pressure for a few weeks, it added. fiinews.com
