Indian flat steel exporters have kept pushing up offers during the past week to protect margins from the appreciating local currency but only stray export contracts have been concluded by commercial exporters, traders said on Monday.
The traders said that, with the Indian rupee breaching the INR 70 to the dollar mark and touching INR 69 to the dollar, a seven-month high, Indian flat steel exporters have had no option but to increase their offers.
However, large steel mills stayed away from concluding transactions while commercial exporters were able to conclude deals for April deliveries to Vietnam and neighboring countries.
Market sources said that, at the macro level, Indian exporters have been hamstrung in pushing exports by the squeeze on bank export credits. Reports from banks indicate that aggregate bank export credit during the past two months was down 45 percent, limiting exporters’ ability to lock up large funds in export production, as far as large manufacturing exporters are concerned.
Ex-India hot rolled coil (HRC) offers have increased by $10/mt during the past week to $555/mt FOB, according to market sources.
The sources said that reports in the market indicated that most of the activity was accounted for by commercial exporters for April deliveries to Vietnam and small-volume shipments to neighboring Nepal and Bangladesh.
The sources estimate the aggregate export volume transacted during the past week to be in the range of 8,000-9,000 metric tons.
Ex-India cold rolled coil (CRC) offers have increased marginally by $5/mt during the past week to $600/mt FOB, according to market sources.
The sources said that buyers’ interest has been confined to neighboring markets like Nepal and Bangladesh, with commercial exporters reporting an estimated aggregate transaction volume in the range of 5,000-6,000 metric tons for early April deliveries.
Ex-India plate offers
According to market sources, ex-India plate offers have marginally increased by $5/mt during the past week to $620/mt FOB, but the sources added that no transactions from either large domestic steel mills or commercial traders have been reported in the market.