Indian exporters’ hot dip galvanized (HDG) coil offers have decreased by $10-15/mt during the past week to $625-635/mt FOB, but this has failed to revive activity in the moribund market with US buyers continuing to stay away amid uncertain flat product price trends in the US market, traders said on Thursday, September 22.
“Our buyers report that US steel price trends are uncertain with a negative outlook and hence US buyers prefer to wait and watch before concluding import transactions,” a Mumbai-based trader said.
“US demand is reported to be weakening and distributors are still carrying comfortable stocks. Accordingly, export activity has persisted at low levels despite the adjustments to offers,” he added.
Market sources said most exporters have been quick to adjust offers as soon the Indian rupee breached the INR 67 to the dollar mark but the pricing strategy was not sufficient to revive the market.
At least two traders pointed out that adjustments to Indian offers are still not sufficient to match aggressive offers from China where exporters have lowered offers to levels of around $530-535/mt FOB.