Ex-India hot rolled coil (HRC) prices have continued to go down over the past week, but have still failed to attract any significant buying amid the further widening of the bid-offer gap, SteelOrbis has learned from trade and industry circles.
Ex-India HRC offers are reported in the range of $645-720/mt FOB, slightly down from the range of $660-720/mt FOB a week ago. However, bids from the Asian markets like Vietnam have been heard at $600-620/mt FOB and slightly higher at $630/mt FOB for the Middle East, which have been unacceptable for Indian mills.
According to the sources, while price realizations were slightly better in Europe, the volume of demand was too low to make any dent in the overall pessimistic mood among sellers.
Ex-India prices are still at $760-770/mt CFR in Europe. But several sources in trade circle and at private mills said that competition for grabbing trades in Europe has been intensifying, with some sellers from other Asian countries submitting offers at $750/mt CFR or below and only “residual trades were coming to Indian sellers”.
In the UAE, ex-India SAE1006 offers have declined to $680/mt CFR, which translates to $645-650/mt FOB. Last week, a deal at $690/mt CFR was rumored to the UAE, but, taking into account the still low prices from China, buyers have been waiting for further price drops from India.
Market sources said that a few mills are considering doing export deals at $640-650/mt FOB, which is the lowest level nowadays, but even at this level it is hard to find a buyer.
“Europe is keeping a semblance of trading alive for Indian exporting mills. But it is getting very price-sensitive and hence volumes of actual deals are very small. With Asian markets seeing a deepening of pessimism, there are too many sellers in Europe,” a source from an Indian mill said.
“We are very conservative in pricing our overseas sales. Aggressive price cutting does not work for us as we have also been very conservative in making export allocations for the current quarter. There is a lot of risk in carrying large export allocations,” the source said.