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.

February 26, 2021

By Suresh Nair

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.