Ex-India cold rolled (CRC) coil prices have been kept largely stable while and hot dip galvanized (HDG) prices have continued to weaken over the past week. Meanwhile, trades have dwindled over the period under review with EU buyers seeking deeper discounts equivalent to prevailing tariffs and Gulf distributors heard to be sufficiently stocked.
Ex-India CRC prices have remained largely unchanged over the past week, standing at $710-720/mt FOB in the latest offers to southern Europe. More specifically, Indian CRC has been voiced at $760-770/mt CFR southern Europe, in line with other ex-Asia CRC offers in the region.
At the same time, ex-India HDG tradable prices have decreased by $5/mt week on week to $730-740/mt FOB, while Indian mills’ HDG prices have been officially quoted at higher levels, at around $760-770/mt FOB in particular, down by $10-20/mt week on week. According to sources, with mills in Europe attempting to hike prices, buyers have been keen on import sourcing, but India was not in favour as tariff quotas are nearly exhausted for the current quarter. Thus, EU buyers have been putting in bids seeking discounts equivalent to applicable tariff rates, which were not viable for Indian sellers, leading to a sharp fall in overall trading activity.
Only one western India-based flat steel producer has reported a minor trade of 5,000 mt for the UAE delivery at $732/mt FOB amid overall lackluster buying interest in the Gulf region as distributors are believed to be fully stocked for now.
“Mills in Europe are aiming for higher prices. But the pace is not fast enough to make ex-India prices inclusive of local tariffs to be attractive to buyers. Our assessment is that the price increase will need to run its full course and fresh tariff quotas to kick in before ex-India sales in Europe improve,” an official at a private mill told SteelOrbis.
“In the interim, we shall see some scattered deals around $700/mt FOB based on emergency needs of buyers and export-allocated inventories of local mills,” he added.