India: Flat Steel Imports Up by 3% in Q1CY’19

As per the recent data released by customs, Indian flat steel imports stood at 1.56 MnT in (Jan-Mar) Q1 CY’19 recording marginal increase of 3% in comparison to 1.52 MnT in Q4 CY’18.

As per the vessel line up data maintained with SteelMint, Indian bulk HRC imports reported surge in first two months of CY19. Import volumes particularly from South Korea & Japan have reported sharp increase since customs duty remained zero from Japan/Korea amid Free Trade Agreement.

On monthly premises nation’s flat steel imports volume rose by 22% to 0.56 MnT in Mar’19 as compared to 0.45 MnT in Feb ’19.

Iranian steel mills exported bulk quantities of HRC to India- As per the vessel line up data maintained Iran has exported around 3 bulk HRC vessels to India during Mar’19. Thus Iranian steel mills were exporting bulk quantities of HRC to India and offering lower prices compared to Chinese mills due to imposed USA sanctions and dull domestic demand in Iran.

Indian HRC/Plate import volumes up by 9% in Q1 CY’19- Import volumes of HRC/Plate to India moved up by 9% to 0.61 MnT in (Jan-Mar)Q1 CY’19 against 0.56 MnT in last quarter.

Meanwhile Galvanized steel imports up by 3% to 0.38 MnT in Q1 CY’19 in comparison to 0.37 MnT in the Q4 CY’18.

Imports of electrical steel up by 2.4% in Q1 CY’19 to 0.42 MnT which was 0.41MnT in Q4 CY’18.

Meanwhile import volumes of CRC in Q1 CY’19 to 0.14 MnT fell by 18% as compared to 0.17 MnT in previous quarter.

Imports from South Korea jump by 11% in Q1 CY’19- Flat steel import volumes from South Korea jumped by 11% at 0.73 MnT in Q1 CY’19 against 0.66 MnT in Q4 of previous year.

Import volume from Japan registered significant growth of 24% to 0.26 MnT in Q1 CY’19 which was 0.21 MnT in Q4 CY’18.

However imports from China stood at 0.19 MnT in Q1 CY’19 plunged by 32% as compared to 0.28 MnT in the fourth quarter of preceding year.

Meanwhile Taiwan and Indonesia also exported flat steel products to India in small quantities in Q1CY19.

Flat steel imports at Mumbai port surge by 27% in Q1 CY’19- Flat steel imports at Mumbai port stood at 0.61 MnT in Q1 CY’19 surge by 27 % as compared to 0.48 MnT in the last quarter of previous year.

However imports at Chennai port fell by 6% to 0.31 MnT in Q1 CY’19 as against 0.33 MnT in Q4 CY’18.

However imports at JNPT spiked by 36% on quarterly basis in Q1 CY’19 to 0.19 MnT in Q1 CY’19 against 0.14 MnT in Q4 CY’18.

Meanwhile import volumes at Kandla port move down by 16% to 0.16 MnT in Q1 CY’19 in comparison to 0.19 MnT in Q4 CY’18.

Party-Wise Flat Steel Importers in Mar’19- POSCO stood as the major flat steel importer in Mar’19. Following this Apollo Tubes Limited, Jindal India Ltd. and Hyundai Steel India Pvt Ltd imported finish flat to India in Mar’19.