Indian domestic billet prices up $12 per tonne on rising material costs

Indian secondary steel billet prices have risen by 900 rupees ($12) per tonne in the current week on higher costs for basic raw materials such as direct-reduced iron (DRI), coupled with increased buying of semi-finished steel by makers of long products.

The price of steel billet, domestic, exw India, was assessed by Fastmarkets on Friday February 26 at 38,300-38,500 rupees ($527-530) per tonne compared with last week’s assessment at 37,400-37,600 rupees per tonne.

“Demand for billets has increased because long product makers are buying more semis, and there is lot of speculative buying by traders,” an official from a secondary steel mill in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh said. “Billet makers in turn are trying to secure more raw material [mostly DRI] to meet this increased demand for semis.”

The price of DRI, domestic, exw India, was assessed by Fastmarkets at 27,300-27,500 rupees per tonne on February 26, up by 700 rupees per tonne compared with last week’s assessment at 26,600-26,800 rupees per tonne.

The weekly price assessment for steel rebar, domestic, exw India, on Friday was 41,800-42,000 rupees per tonne, an increase of 300 rupees per tonne from 41,500-41,700 rupees per tonne last week.