Indian exporters of flat steel products have largely kept their offers stable during the past week in line with slight global upticks in finished steel prices, but they were only limited to concluding contracts for small volumes to neighboring countries, traders said on Monday, December 10.
“Indian commercial exporters and local steel mills were able to keep export offers stable, helped by the slight increase in offer prices effected for ex-China material during the past week,” a Mumbai-based trader said.
“Indian flat steel product exporters are in a bind and it will be interesting to watch their pricing strategy in the coming weeks. There is a significant build-up of inventories in the local market. Exporting steel mills are under pressure to push volumes overseas to reduce pressures from high stocks on local prices. However, whether they will push volumes overseas through aggressive pricing or maintain export offers unchanged like in the past week at cost of shipment volumes needs to be watched,” the trader said.
Market sources said that, by keeping offers stable, most commercial exporters and exporting steel mills are unable to conclude transactions for significant export volumes and trades are limited to small-volume HRC contracts to neighboring countries.
Ex-India HRC offers
Market sources said that ex-India HRC offers have remained stable at around $520/mt FOB with only a few contracts to Nepal and Bangladesh reported in the market during the past week.
The sources said that aggregate export volumes to these two countries were estimated in the range of around 3,000 mt.
Ex-China HRC offers to markets like Vietnam and Indonesia have increased slightly but this so far has not prompted buyers from these markets to respond to Indian HRC offers, with buyers possibly waiting for Indian offers to be lowered in the coming weeks, the sources added.
Ex-India CRC offers
According to market sources, ex-India CRC offers have remained unchanged during the past week at $540/mt FOB.
However, no contracts for significant volumes have been reported in the market barring one minor shipment to Bangladesh though the volume in the contract concluded by a commercial exporter could not be ascertained from the market, the sources added.
Ex-India plate offers
Ex-Indian plates export offers, in contrast to other flat products, were down $10/mt week on week to $560/mt FOB but even the cut in offer prices has not attracted any buying interest, market sources said.