Ex-India hot rolled coil (HRC) prices have remained largely stable over the past week, but trading activity has slowed considerably as sellers have grown increasingly reluctant to do deals below $495/mt FOB. Market participants noted that continued discounting at such levels had become unsustainable, prompting mills and traders to put a pause on aggressive sales especially to the Gulf and Asia.
Specifically, official offers from most large Indian mills have been kept unchanged in the range of $505-515/mt FOB to the Middle East, which translates to around $535-540/mt CFR UAE. However, according to sources, one of Indian steelmakers have been offering its coils in the UAE at lower levels of around $495-505/mt FOB, which translates to around $525-535/mt CFR, but, as one buyers commented, "No fresh bookings have been heard as prices from other suppliers are much lower." For instance, according to sources, deal prices for ex-Taiwan HRC have been heard at $505/mt CFR UAE.
Meanwhile, ex-India offers in Europe have been voiced at $555/mt FOB, up by $5/mt on the lower end of the range week on week, which translates to around $610/mt CFR, but risks of quota exhaustion coupled with sufficient local availability have prompted large distributors to not respond to ex-India offers.
At the same time, following several bookings for at least 60,000 mt of ex-India HRC sold in Vietnam at $507-515/mt CFR during the last two weeks, this week no fresh deals have been reported so far, while most offers have been estimated at $515-520/mt CFR, the same as last week, which means around $495-500/mt FOB in Vietnam.
Thus, the SteelOrbis reference price for ex-India SAE1006 HRC has moved to $495-555/mt FOB, from $490-555/mt FOB at the beginning of last week.
“Most global markets have showed price stability. But, in the Middle East, despite buying interest, there is high resistance to accepting any price increase. Indian mills also halted pushing sales at aggressive discounts. Such discounted sales cannot be sustained week on week. Selective discounting has run its course for now,” an affiliate of Tata Steel Limited told SteelOrbis.
