Ex-India hot rolled coil (HRC) offers have been maintained unchanged for the main trade destinations, but with no significant trade activity in the face of sustained competition, while offers in Europe have been dropped slightly with moderate success in small-volume trades.
Sources said that large Indian mills have kept export prices mainly unchanged at around $520/mt FOB, compared to $520-530/mt FOB last week, but buyers in the Middle East have not been responding owing to the uncertain trends seen in the market and tight competition with Chinese suppliers. In particular, while indicative offers for ex-India HRC in the Middle East have been estimated at as high as $540-550/mt CFR, offers from China have been reported in the region at $495/mt CFR. “With multiple offers available, buyers were hedging to conclude definitive deals as local distributors were comfortably stocked with no significant demand uptick seen ahead,” a market insider said.
However, few large mills pruned offer levels by $10/mt to the range of $580/mt FOB for Europe, down by $10/mt on the higher end of the range week on week, but with limited success in pushing sales. The sources said that an eastern India-based large mill is heard to have concluded a trade for 8,000 mt at $635/CFR Antwerp while another seller reported a sale for 12,000 mt for delivery to Rotterdam at $630-635/mt CFR.
“There were some slight gains seen in ex-China offers. But this is not impacting market conditions in most key regions as the mood among buyers is extremely cautious and they do not see any definitive trends ahead. The Middle East market has gone almost completely quiet from the lack of a demand rise and the uncertain price outlook,” an affiliate of Tata Steel Limited told SteelOrbis.
“The easing of regional tensions between India and Pakistan has instilled some calm confidence in the industry and market. But still mills are not looking aggressively at exports and instead are pushing higher local sales where margins are better and this is expected to continue next quarter too,” he added.