Ex-India hot rolled coil (HRC) prices have been kept largely stable in the past week, with some large exporting mills attempting to submit higher offers taking hope from reports of improvements in the price trend in Europe and the demand recovery in the Middle East region, but still no deals at higher levels have been confirmed during the past week as competition with other Asian suppliers remains tough.
Sources said that, while most Indian HRC exporters have maintained their prices unchanged at $485-495/mt FOB, at least two mills are heard to have submitted offers higher at $505-510/mt FOB, but no trades have been confirmed at any of the prices. Thus, the SteelOrbis reference price for ex-India SAE1006 HRC has settled at $485-510/mt FOB, against $485-508/mt FOB last week.
Offers for ex-India HRC have been estimated at $525/mt CFR UAE, against deal prices at $530/mt CFR two weeks ago, though, according to one source, “Mills are more flexible now on export prices given the competition with other suppliers from Japan, China and Vietnam, and we expect $515/mt CFR might be the deal price level.”
At the same time, market insiders claimed that some exporting mills have been emboldened to quote higher, taking their cue from the improved prices reported from the EU, but distributors have been unwilling to take risks and conclude deals affected by trade restrictions in the region, and are also expecting import price dynamics to change once business activity picks up in China.
“The mood is definitely slightly better in the Middle East and Europe. But we are not seeing this getting translated into either buying or better workable prices. There is a lot of caution among buyers that price dynamics can undergo sudden changes from tariff changes by the US administration later this week and sellers from China returning to the market subsequently. Both can change the flow of material in global trade,” a source at Tata Steel Limited told SteelOrbis.
“Most market participants are on wait and watch. Some Indian exporters are attempting to go higher, but there are a lot of policy uncertainties ahead,” he added.
