Indian export offers for hot dip
galvanized (HDG) coils have remained in the range of $830-840/mt CFR US during the past week amid low transaction volumes with buyers caught between rising flat product prices in the US and fresh speculation regarding trade petitions, traders said on Thursday, July 23.
According to a Mumbai-based trader, although buyers have been showing interest in Indian HDG against the backdrop of increasing prices in the US, they have also been holding back from concluding transactions as speculation has surfaced again regarding possible new trade petitions against import flat products by a few more US steel mills.
The trader said that a number of US buyers have told Indian exporters that US steel mills are considering fresh petitions against flat product imports from Japan,
India, South Korea and Turkey and this has clearly forced buyers to defer transactions for Indian HDG. However, the trader was unable to name the specific product categories that are threatened by such possible petitions.
Nevertheless, according to market sources, trading activity in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GC) market has been improving after Ramadan and the Eid holiday and HDG shipments from
India to the region have also improved in terms of volumes.
Demand from the Gulf region has continued to be strong and this strength is expected to be reflected in trading volumes over the next few weeks. Therefore, Indian exporters have kept their offers in the range of $600-610/mt CFR Gulf and have refrained from upward adjustments despite the strong demand, in the interest of keeping volume shipments at higher levels and not risking resistance from buyers for the moment, the sources added.