Neha Arora

Indian steel ​prices are expected to rise further in the coming weeks as a post-monsoon pickup ‌in infrastructure and automotive demand tightens the market while higher coking coal costs lift production costs of mills, executives and analysts said.

The world's largest coal producer, Coal India Ltd , is setting up its first overseas trading office in Singapore, ​aiming to diversify into trading iron ore and critical and strategic minerals, ‌two sources said.

Indian steel mills are facing mounting ​pressure on margins as higher coking coal prices, driven by supply disruptions in Australia and China and ‌the Iran war, raise steelmaking costs, executives and analysts said.

State-run Hindustan Copper plans to sell copper concentrate produced by mines it is acquiring from Chile's Codelco to Hindalco and Adani, aiming to ​meet India's growing appetite for the red metal, two sources familiar with ‌the matter said.

India's state-run Steel Authority of India and Indonesia's Krakatau Steel plan to invest as much as $350 million in a stainless steel slab ​plant in Indonesia, two Indian sources familiar with the matter said this week.

Indian steelmakers are pivoting to the domestic ​market to offset weaker exports as key markets Europe and Britain tighten imports, but competition from cheap Chinese steel ‌at home is blunting that strategy, company executives and analysts said.

India has asked the European Union for relief from ‌planned curbs on metal scrap exports as steel and aluminium makers warn the move could tighten supplies, raise costs and undermine gains from a trade pact, industry and government officials said.

India will monitor steel imports for at least ‌two more months before considering whether further measures are needed to curb the flow of shipments primarily from China, a source with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.

Indian miner IREL is in talks with Rosneft to source rare ‌earth samples from Tomtor, the Siberian deposit acquired by the Russian oil producer last year, as New Delhi seeks to secure supplies of critical minerals dominated by China, a source said.

Indian industrial groups Reliance, Vedanta and Adani have shown interest in developing facilities ‌to process Andhra Pradesh state's significant reserves of increasingly important rare-earth minerals, according to two sources with knowledge of the matter.