Ex-India hot dip galvanized (HDG) coil prices have been kept unchanged and the market has remained unactive with wide bid-offer gaps preventing successful deals, with sellers having very low exportable volumes and unwilling to adjust prices further, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Thursday, March 6.
Sources said that ex-India HDG (grade Z120) has been quoted in the range of $700-720/mt FOB and a few bids from western European distributors have been heard at $670-680/mt FOB, but sellers having dropped prices in the previous week have been unwilling to make further cuts. Furthermore, most large exporting mills are reported to have very low or zero exportable volumes in March, the last month of the current fiscal year, and are under no pressure to liquidate stocks at reduced prices, the sources said.
“Sellers do not have much scope for further price adjustments at the price is already at a floor. There are very little volumes saleable overseas. On the buyers’ side, the mood in Europe is bearish. Producers are struggling to increase prices amid weak user industry demand, most prominent in the sluggish German automobile industry. European distributors are therefore not looking at imports unless prices are deeply discounted,” a source at ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel Limited said.
“Everybody is waiting and assessing changes in global trade flows from tariff-level fights. It is a challenge to forecast many of the changes, but it is for sure to result in a steel glut in several geographies. Buyers do not need to rush in making commitments,” another source told SteelOrbis.
