Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) and hot dip galvanized (HDG) coil sellers have maintained export their prices stable even as trades fell almost silent amid conflicting global cues, the holidays in Europe, and weak demand in the Gulf region, SteelOrbis has learned from trade and industry circles.
Ex-India CRC prices have remained at $710-720/mt FOB, stable from last week, though the tradable level has been assessed at $5-10/mt lower for sales under the EU quota, which has almost been fully exhausted. Trading has been slow due to the holidays in Europe and Indian mills have been waiting for the next quarter quota before concluding deals.
Ex-India HDG prices have been kept unchanged at $730-740/mt FOB, but both buyers and sellers have refrained from responding to offers, conflicted by the sharp fall in prices of mills in the west and the surge in ex-China prices seen over the past week.
Sources said that overseas buyers in the Gulf and Europe have been unwilling to accept any price increase and the few bids received averaged at around $705/mt FOB (for sales over the quota with shipment by the end of September), but no deals have been concluded, indicating that sellers are also preferring to wait for a definitive trend to emerge in key destinations.
“There are a lot of variations in originating countries. Ex-US prices have been softening and ex-China prices are increasing. Buyers and Indian mills are hence unwilling to take a stance. It is not a problem right now with business activity low during the holidays, and Europe and the Gulf distributors are adequately stocked,” a source at a major Indian mill said.
“Indian mills have relatively low export allocations for the current quarter and will continue to hold back offers until the end of this month, hoping for a price rebound. Our assessment is that in Europe buyers will continue to seek discounts once business activity resumes as price increases by local mills have been more conservative than expected,” the sources said.
