Indian exporters of hot dip galvanized (HDG) coils have maintained their offers unchanged at $690/mt FOB during the past week, with just a few exporters offering marginal discounts of $10-15/mt in order to conclude transactions in the US market, traders said on Thursday, February 9.
"Discount offers by exporters have been very selective, being aimed solely at concluding transactions and overcoming buyers' reluctance to conclude deals for large volumes," a Mumbai-based trader said.
"US buyers have been cagey about concluding transactions despite reports of US mills pushing up their local HDG prices," the trader added.
However, at least two traders, who did not conclude transactions, said that transactions concluded at discount prices could not be sustained as the final FOB price was lower than the current HDG prices prevailing in the local Indian market.
The traders said that transactions at such unviable prices have been concluded by some in the market only to maintain an overseas presence and to bring in foreign currency.
However, other market sources said that the reasons for the low interest among US buyers were the uncertainties regarding trade barriers and tariffs reported to be under consideration by the new US administration.