Ex-India hot dip galvanized (HDG) coil offers have been kept stable over the past week even as silent trade conditions have been prolonged by a combination of fewer sellers active in the market for the festival holidays, fresh weakness across flat product segments in most destinations, and buyers being reluctant to restock in a falling market, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Thursday, October 23.
Sources said, while ex-India HDG grade Z120 has remained unchanged at $680-700/mt FOB, a few sellers have been active in pushing sales overseas owing to the holidays.
At the same time, buyers in the Middle East have remained quiet with most distributors reported to be fully stocked amid sluggish demand, while those in Europe have not been looking at increasing import exposure, in order to avoid the uncertainties of changing trade barriers.
“We do not see any immediate improvement in sales overseas. There is oversupply in most key destinations and there is a lot of aggressive price-cutting following the fresh weakness seen in Asian producing countries,” a source at ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel Limited told SteelOrbis.
“We don’t think Indian mills are allocating much volume for export as exports will continue to remain peripheral to the overall sales push. Some buying may emerge at levels of $650-670/mt FOB, but these are uneconomical for Indian mills,” he added.
