Ex-India hot rolled coil (HRC) prices were kept stable and while sellers continued to stay away from submitting offers in Europe, some mills were heard to have resumed placing offers in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Though for now deals have been confirmed only to non-traditional destination, Nepal in particular, with additional discounts.
Sources said that offers submitted in the Middle East and Singapore were reported at $560-580/mt FOB, unchanged from earlier in the week on optimism that global prices may have bottomed out in this cycle, though no seller was willing to confirm new deals so far. However, sources confirmed that deals from Indian mills have been reportedly signed only to Nepal during the past weeks at around $570/mt delivered to Indian border. “We heard Indian mills have been only succeeding in non-traditional destinations, like Nepal, having sold approximately 50,000-60,000 mt during August,” an Indian trader said.
According to the sources, local exporters were pinning a lot of hope that increase in flat product prices seen in China would sustain, leading to higher interest in imports among other south Asian consumers but a section of officials in mills said that it was still too early to see any revival in ex-India trade activity.
“The mood in some destinations is definitely better but we cannot claim that it is conducive to push sales overseas on a sustained basis. We have not sold anything overseas. Some mills may be successful in concluding deals. We are not sure. But the fact is that no seller will be willing to disclose deals as competition is still very strong and buying still weak,” a source in Tata Steel Limited told SteelOrbis.
“We remain pessimistic on the export front. There is a lot of rumors of deals at below $500/mt FOB which may be unsubstantiated but still indicate depressed demand conditions and excess supplies,” another source said.
