As Steel firms bid 2019 goodbye, they hope for better pricing in 2020

Analysts see commodity prices looking up and say looking forward to a pick-up in consumption

The year 2019 has been tough for the domestic steel industry as both stocks and commodity prices dropped significantly during the year.

With steel consumption slipping to unexpected levels on the back of an extended monsoon, the US-China trade war, and a liquidity crunch in the domestic market, among several other factors, prices of the alloy plunged almost 34 per cent in the period under review.

“The steel industry had not seen such a steep price fall in the past two-three years. Hot-rolled coil prices slumped continuously for 21 straight weeks (during the year) and have led to lowering market consumption estimates