Indian flat steel export prices have continued to seek lower levels during the past week with both commercial traders and large exporting mills lowering export offers in reaction to falling prices across overseas markets, but have largely stayed away from concluding any significant contracts instead focusing on the domestic market, traders said on Monday, November 5.
“Even with domestic flat steel product prices facing pricing pressures, large Indian steel mills still preferred to push domestic sales as margins continued to be higher than for export shipments after the lowering of export offers during the week,” a Mumbai-based trader said.
“Indian exporters do not have much leeway in aggressively lowering offers matching the downward trend in overseas markets, considering their higher costs of production. At the same time, incentives from weakening currency do not exist right now as the Indian rupee is showing signs of a marginal appreciation at INR 73 to the dollar at the moment,” the trader added.
Ex-India HRC offers
Indian HRC export offers are quoted in a range of around $590/mt FOB, down $10/mt week on week, but no significant transactions have been reported during the past week, market sources said.
They said that, even though market reports suggested that local mills are faced with rising inventories, most large steel mills stayed away from concluding export transactions to reduce stocks. This was because ex-India HRC offers are still not competitively priced to attract traditional buyers in Southeast Asian markets, who preferred ex-China material.
Ex-India CRC offers
Market sources said that exporters have sharply reduced ex-India CRC offers by $30/mt week on week to $620/mt FOB, but neither large steel mills or commercial traders have reported any transactions during the past week and buyers have not responded to offers, resulting in completely inactive market conditions.
Ex-India plate offers
Ex-India plate offers have been reduced by $10/mt week on week to $640/mt FOB, but no transactions by either steel mills or commercial traders have been reported during the week, with sources attributing this to the negligible exportable surplus available in the market.