Indian flat steel exports have remained at negligible levels during the past week with most merchant traders and large steel mills staying away from pushing to conclude contracts in view of continued high realizations from local sales and local currency showing signs of stabilizing reducing additional incentives, traders said on Monday, October 29.
“While most large mills have kept offers stable, they were not keen on pushing export shipments. For one, domestic prices are seen to be consolidating at higher levels. At the same time, I feel that large steel mills are not having much of exportable surplus as several of them are reporting to be having problems in dispatches to their local customer,” a Mumbai-based trader said.
Ex-India HRC offers have maintained the level of $600/mt FOB during the past week despite the lack of activity. While large exporting steel mills were reluctant to push shipments, buyers in the Southeast Asian markets such as Indonesia and Vietnam have also stayed away with reports suggesting that low prices in this region prevented buyers from looking at overseas sourcing.
Merchant exporters have reduced their ex-India CRC offers by $20/mt week on week to $650/mt FOB. However, transactions concluded during the past week were mostly for ex-China offers which were significantly at lower levels. Amid the low demand in Southeast Asian regions, only few buyers have continued to be active in the local market, sources said.
Ex-Indian steel plate export offers have remained stable week on week at $650/mt but market sources said that neither merchant exporters nor large steel mills have any exportable surplus in view of rising off-take among government companies in manufacturing thermal power plant equipment and fresh order from oil exploration and production companies like ONGC Limited.