Indian flat steel exporters kept insisting on higher prices last week, seeing demand from Asian customers, in Vietnam and China in particular, and not having too much allocation for sales abroad as they are trying to focus on pushing volumes in their domestic market after increasing base prices, SteelOrbis has learned.
Ex-India hot rolled coil (HRC) export offers were maintained at $420-425/mt FOB. One western India-based steel mill sold an end December delivery cargo to China at around $410/mt FOB (about $435/mt CFR) for an estimated volume of 30,000 mt. An eastern India based-steel mill was able to conclude a contract for early January delivery to Vietnam at around $415/mt FOB ($440/mt CFR) for about 30,000-40,000 mt, the sources added. The deal to Vietnam was at $5/mt compared to the transaction price a week ago.
At the same time, at least three trader-exporters are reported to have concluded export contracts to neighboring Nepal at a discounted price of $400/mt FOB. However, this price is not available from large steel mills and has not been heard in the major sales destinations.
In the south of Europe, offers of Indian mills have been registered at $425/mt (€415/mt CFR Italy), but customers have focused on bookings of large volumes from other countries, like Turkey, due to better prices.
Sources said that most large exporting steel mills in India have been increasing their focus on pushing higher volumes in their local market, having increased base prices for most flat products during the past week.
Also, domestic producers are waiting for the government to announce new export incentive schemes and to alter existing export promotion schemes after the recent adverse ruling of the WTO that the Indian government export schemes were subsidies and violated trading norms.
According to an official at state-run producer Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL), most steel exporters will need to review their export pricing after the WTO ruling and taking into account details of new export promotion schemes that could be announced by the government for greater compliance with WTO norms.
