Ex-India hot dip galvanized (HDG) coil prices have been kept stable, but trade activity has fallen silent with buyers seeking extended discounts and sellers unwilling to accept the wide bid-offer gap, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Thursday, January 16.
Sources said that, while ex-India HDG (Z120) prices have been kept stable at $710-740/mt FOB, some buyers from the Middle East have been seeking deals quoting bids in the range of $680-700/mt FOB. Besides, according to the sources, even though some sellers had sold limited volumes at lows of $710-730/mt FOB net of discount in earlier weeks, demand for higher discount levels as sought by some buyers have not been accepted.
“There are a number of reasons for the market sporadically lapsing into inactivity. The primary reason being uncertainty and nervousness among buyers in Europe. From the sellers’ side, there are limits to using pricing to push sales. Also, in the short term, local mills may be close to having liquidated export allocations carried over from the last quarter and do not need to offer discounts aggressively,” an official at a private mill told SteelOrbis.
“In the flat product segment, HDG is the most price-sensitive in the global markets. Even small variations in demand-price dynamics impact buyers’ intentions. Going forward, Indian mills will be very conservative in deciding new export allocations for the April-June quarter of the next fiscal,” he added.
