India’s BSE or Bombay Stock Exchange launched a delivery-based futures contract for steel billets. The contract is designed by the Steel Users Federation of India (SUFI) customized to the needs of industry participants.
Upcoming mega government-funded projects, production-linked incentive schemes for specialty steelmakers and India’s focus on increasing its self-reliance in steelmaking provided a great opportunity for the industry.
Steel futures contract offers producers a reliable means to manage their price risks in volatile market conditions and also adds transparency and sets a benchmark for market participants.
BSE and SUFI are optimistic that the stakeholders could be able to benchmark a variety of steel products against the SUFI Steel billets futures prices.
The contract offers 10mn mt on Rs/mt basis with a maximum order size of 500mn mt deliverable at Raipur. The carbon steel billets would conform to BIS 2830:2012 Standard for Carbon Steel Grade A.
Friday noon, the futures contract ‘SUFIBLT’ for August shipment traded at Rs44,580/mt, up 0.27pc from a day prior, while the contract for September was at Rs44,800/mt, up by 640 or 1.45pc.