Steel 360 - November 2021

I dette nummeret

Indian primary steel mills have raised prices for Nov’21. Flat steel rates
are up by INR 2,000-2,500/tonne. The reason is surging prices of input
materials like coking coal, met coke and ferro alloys. Indeed, premium
HCC Australian coking coal prices are up 257% in Oct’21 y-o-y while the
HCC 64 mid-vol is up 214% in this period. Prices of both silico manganese
(60-14) and ferro manganese (FC70%) are currently up around 30% since
the third week of September. October too had seen a price hike -- by INR
1,500/t in flats and around INR 3,500/t in longs.
But will the end-user segment be able to absorb the latest hike --
especially since the domestic and export markets both look dull at
present? Trade level participants say demand is low. Construction players
say they are moving to the sidelines on rising steel prices.
In exports, China’s aggressively low rates are luring Vietnamese buyers
while CIS and Russian mills are also actively selling to South East Asia.
Europe may not open up very strongly from the new calendar because of
the lean winter demand season. Moreover, too many exporting countries
are eying the continent and thus prices may come under pressure.
Our cover story takes a look at the short and medium terms