Indian hot rolled coil (HRC) exporters have increased their offers this week following better trade activity and price growth in the local market, coupled with bullishness mounting among Chinese suppliers. However, according to sources, export sales have fallen to a minimum in the wake of tariff quotas exhausted to Europe and the holidays in the region, while distributors in the Gulf and Vietnam are heard to be sufficiently stocked up.
Specifically, ex-India HRC prices have settled at $585-620/mt FOB, depending on the destination, versus $570-615/mt FOB last week, though with sellers still mostly holding back offers as the bid-offer gap is still too wide. According to sources, an eastern India-based mill was the only seller to report a trade of 12,000 mt for September delivery to Singapore, with a trader for onward sale at around $578/mt FOB, but most market insiders believe “this deal is at an impossibly low level given the current circumstances in the Indian domestic market and higher offers from Chinese suppliers globally.”
Indicative offers for ex-India HRC in the Middle East and Turkey have been estimated at $620-630/mt CFR, though no deals have been reported so far.
“There is little urgency among local sellers to aggressively push sales overseas considering that export allocations are lower, with mills making maintenance shutdowns and they can wait for gains in the Asian region to consolidate”, a source at ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel Limited said.
“There are positive signals from possible production cuts in China and prices are getting stronger, but they are not so widespread across various Asian destinations. Workable prices must be above the $580/mt FOB mark on a sustained basis. The market is not there yet,” another source told SteelOrbis.
Another official at a private mill said that sellers are ready to submit higher offers from the first week of August onwards and the revival in local demand will help exporters to refrain from aggressively discounted sales.
