The daily Davis Index for rebar declined by Rs200/mt ($2.81/mt) and settled at Rs34,500/mt ($483.8/mt) ex-works Mumbai on Tuesday amid a slowdown in demand from the real estate sector and a fall in input costs. Traders and stockists expect a further drop of about Rs500/mt in the week as retailers reduced booking.
The daily Davis Index for billet in Mumbai fell by Rs200/mt to Rs30,350/mt ($425.6/mt) ex-works. Billet offers were at Rs30,400/mt, while bids were at Rs30,300/mt, but no deals were reported.
The daily Davis Index for ingot in Mandi Gobindgarh, which is one of the indicators for the secondary market in India, fell by Rs300/mt to Rs31,250/mt ($438.22/mt) ex-works as scrap prices declined on Tuesday.
Similarly, rebar prices in Raipur declined by Rs200/mt from the previous day and the daily Davis Index for rebar in Raipur settled at Rs33,100/mt ($464.17/mt) ex-works. Steel mills in central India increased production by 10-15pc from the previous week on expectation of higher demand from infrastructure and real estate sectors on budget allocation. But as the budget lacked short term stimulus, prices of rebar fell.
The daily index for billet decreased by Rs300/mt ($4.2/mt) and settled at Rs29,000/mt ($406/mt) ex-works Raipur, owing to fall in pellet sponge prices and ferrous scrap prices. Pellet sponge prices in Raipur were at Rs18,700-18,800/mt down by Rs100-200/mt from the prior day.
($1= Rs71.31)