Ex-India hot rolled coil (HRC) prices have remained largely stable, though with some slight upward bias in some offers in Europe. At the same time, local mills were reported to not be pushing sales overseas following improvement in local sales prices and expected supply tightening with several mills going in for planned shut downs in April-June period.
More specifically, ex-India HRC prices have settled at $550-585/mt FOB, versus $540-570/mt FOB last week, with the higher end of range corresponding to offers in Europe. In particular, offers from Indian suppliers have been voiced in southern Europe at around $640/mt CFR, which translates to around $585/mt FOB. Trade has been still limited by safeguard quota issue for the second quarter in Europe, though, according to sources, a deal for around 8,000 mt of ex-India HRC for Rotterdam delivery has been signed at $640/mt CFR, however, this has not been officially confirmed by the time of publication.
Meanwhile, enquiries from the Middle East were not converted to deals owing to multiple reasons including local mills preferring domestic sales, geo-political uncertainties in destination coupled with buyers in Middle East having cheaper sourcing from ex-China material. Indicative offers for ex-India HRC have been estimated at $560/mt FOB, the same as last week though, according to sources, some mills are aiming higher offers at around $580/mt FOB.
“Local sales prices are improving on lower supplies from mills and large mills have not finalised any export allocations for the current quarter in view of higher domestic realisations. Indian mills are not be able to match cheaper ex-China prices this time when domestic market offers a better margin,” a source in Tata Steel Limited told SteelOrbis.
“Industry estimates that about 100,000 mt of HRC has been booked by overseas buyers till April 19. In the present trend, total exports in April will be much lower than around 700,000 mt exports booked in March. We don’t see mills rushing to fix export allocations significantly and local sales will remain the focus. Export margins and competition is too strong. Improved export sentiments needs to be translated to improved prices before mills refocus on overseas sales,” another source said.
