Spot HRC spread for sheet steel players has risen to an 8-month high on falling coking coal prices. While HRC prices are down by Rs200/te WoW in the traders’ market, coking coal prices are down by a further US$13/te, implying an overall benefit of Rs800/te.

India’s sugar production next season will be enough to meet the local demand and the country will also be able to export some quantities of the sweetener, despite concerns about the emergence of the El Nino weather pattern, a top government official said. El Nino forecast has made sugar industry worried about the impact on the output of sugarcane and in turn on the production of sugar.

Our perusal of the report from Standing Committee of Defence suggests: 1) Budget allocation for the Indian Army (IA) is likely to pick up in FY25; 2) Indian Navy’s (IN) tentative contracts to be awarded over FY24-FY25 imply limited opportunity for MDL as compared to other shipyards;

Pricing power is crucial in the commodity business and the Indian cement sector is certainly losing the plot on that front. Elevated competitive intensity across regions, has prevented margin-accretive price hikes, despite: a) robust demand (Q4FY23E prices slipped ~1% QoQ notwithstanding peak season volume surge of ~10% YoY)

The Asian markets are trading lower following a flat close on Wall Street overnight and Fed Reserve officials giving mixed signals on future rate hikes. Nikkei is trading lower by 0.22%, Hang Seng is trading lower by 0.78%, and Shanghai is trading lower by 0.30%.

On the cusp of a recovery

Diesel sales in India jumped up sharply in the first half of April as agricultural activity pick-up and trucking increased to meet industrial demand, preliminary industry data showed on Monday. Demand for diesel, the most consumed fuel in the country accounting for about two- fifths of the demand, soared over 15% to 3.45 mn tonnes in the first half of April vs a year ago.

The RBI has raised policy repo rate six times totalling 250 bps in less than a year since May’22 before announcing a pause in the latest policy review. Although the withdrawal of accommodation stance and rate hike cycle in the last one year remains sharpest in the past decade and a half.