Indian exporters of hot dip galvanized (HDG) coil have maintained their offers at $750/mt FOB but market activity during the past week has come to a virtual standstill with commercial exporters attributing the complete lack of buyers to worsening trade tensions, traders said on Thursday, June 28.
“A combination of the US offensive against trade partners, talks of trade wars, and Indian steel mills focusing on their domestic market where they are getting higher margins, have all led to the virtual drying-up of overseas HDG shipments,” a Mumbai-based trader said.
“Even the Indian rupee plunging to an all-time low against the US dollar is not pushing Indian steel mills and commercial exporters to adopt aggressive pricing and push HDG volumes as there are just no buyers,” the trader added.
According to two other traders, while large steel mills are reported to be active in pushing flat product exports to Southeast Asian markets like Malaysia and Indonesia, buyers of ex-India HDG, particularly from major Gulf markets, have been completely absent during the past week.
Fresh threats to imports from China by the US Administration are keeping buyers away from the Chinese market and this is resulting in a lack of any buying interest in the local Indian market, the two traders added.