Indian flat steel export offers have followed diverse trends during the past week with large local steel mills cutting their hot rolled coil (HRC) offers to aggressively push volumes overseas while keeping offer levels for cold rolled coil (CRC) and steel plate quotations stable, traders said on Monday, July 8.
According to traders, local steel mills in their attempt to cut ex-India HRC offers to control rising inventories have been supported by a slight rise in buying interest in key markets such as Indonesia and Vietnam, while offers for CRC and steel plates have not evoked any significant buying interest.
“The sustained slowdown in the Indian market has forced large steel mills to refocus on exports. But their ability to push higher volumes overseas largely depends on trends in ex-China offers where the slight hardening in prices is still very tentative,” a Mumbai-based trader said.
During the past week, Indian HRC export offers have decreased by $10/mt to $505/mt FOB, according to market sources.
The sources state that both Indian traders and large steel mills have been successful in concluding shipment deals to Vietnam during the past week, riding on the upturn in ex-China offers to Vietnam.
At the same time, aggregate bookings estimated in the range of 7,000-8,000 mt have been booked by buyers in neighboring Nepal and Bangladesh and the bulk of these contracts were accounted for by Indian traders, the sources added.
Indian cold rolled coil (CRC) export offers have remained stable over the past week at $540/mt FOB, according to market sources.
However, barring minor volumes estimated at around 5,000 mt booked by buyers in neighboring markets like Nepal and Bangladesh by Indian traders, no large Indian steel mill has been active in overseas shipments during the past week, the sources said.
Indian plate export offers have moved sideways week on week at $565/mt FOB, according to sources, who added that no significant transactions have been concluded by either traders or large domestic steel mills from India.