A surprising slump in sentiment and prices from India was seen this week,
after the fairly uneventful budget announcement of last weekend.
Initially seen as positive, the fine print revealed that there would be a
5% increase in excise duty imposed on previously non excisable items (machinery
and spare parts).
As such, end buyers strongly objected to this and decided to strike until
Monday 9th March in protest (yards will be working but no loading or selling of
materials will be done).
The hope remains that the ruling will be rescinded by what is seen as a
generally pro business and flexible government of Mr. Modi. Contributing to the
slowdown was a depreciation of the Indian Rupee by a wholepercentage point
against the US Dollar (trading into the Rs.62s for the majority of this week).
Whilst many end users pause to take stock of the current predicament and
assess whether the market will go further down, one market sale was reported as
the Nasco controlled tween YONG JIA MEN (7,312 LDT) was committed for a decent
USD 365/LT LDT (+ inward clearance costs for Buyers) with about 180 Ts bunkers
remaining on board upon delivery.
Source: steel guru. 10 March 2015
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