Ex-India hot dip galvanized (HDG) coil prices have remained stable over the past week but large mills have put a hold on submitting offers, presumably owing to very limited export allocations for November.
Ex-India HDG offers have been reported at $810-840/mt FOB for 0.57 mm, Z120-140. Sources said that there were some enquiries originating from Europe, but bids were in the range of $780-800/mt FOB. However, local sellers have not responded to such bids owing to the lack of material for overseas sales and prices have not been sufficiently attractive to divert volumes from local sales.
“The positive signal is that buying interest is slightly reviving from Europe. The negative signal is that bids are too low for Indian mills. The latter can well afford to wait and watch as they have kept export allocations at negligible volumes,” a source at ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel Limited told SteelOrbis.
“Even though automobile exports from India dipped 17 percent during the April-September period of the fiscal year 2023-24, local demand for HDG, a niche high value-added product, remains stable. Mills are confident of lowering export volumes and increasing local sales where realizations are higher,” another source said.
It may be noted that Indian automobile manufacturers uses larger volumes of HDG per unit of vehicle for export production compared to vehicles for local sales.