Ex-India hot dipped galvanized (HDG) coil prices have continued to move sideways, but trade activity lapsed into silence with buyers in the Middle East pushing for lower prices but sellers withdrawing discounts leading to no deals confirmed during the past week.
Sources said that ex-India HDG (Z120) offers have been kept unchanged in the range of $685-700/mt FOB but few buyers from the Middle East were heard to have submitted bids at $650-660/mt FOB, even lower that levels of discounted sales concluded last week at $675/mt FOB, but large local mills were reported to be refraining from such low bids particularly as exportable volumes for the current quarter were already very low.
At the same time, no response has been reported from buyers in Europe with large distributors in the region remained on the sidelines regarding imports amid expectations that declines in offers to gain momentum coupled with persistent sluggish demand for local material.
A section of market participants maintained that large Indian mills with low exportable volumes were not faced with compulsions to drive overseas sales at discount and taking cue from slight hardening of flat steel prices in China were preferring to hold back offers for now.
“In our assessment, Middle East market is close to being fully stocked for now. There are buyers but only if very low prices are accepted by the sellers. With several very competitive offers floating in the region, buyers have the upper hand,” an official with a private mill told SteelOrbis.
“We do not see much activity on ex-India HDG and price will remain range-bound amid inactive conditions on combination of weak demand in key markets and mills under no pressure to push discounted sales,” he added.