Indian import offers for ex-China flat steel products softened during the past week enabling the uptrend of inward shipments to be sustained with HRC inward shipments seeing the highest transaction volumes, traders said on Wednesday, November 7.
“While ex-China flat steel products have moved down across the board, higher transaction volumes have been seen for ex-Japan material with the bulk of transactions being reported by large local steel mills,” a Mumbai-based trader said.
“It was also noticed that the premium on ex-Japan flat steel products prevailing in earlier weeks was withdrawn during the past week and hence Indian commercial importers and steel mills are more attracted to conclude transactions for Japanese material.
Market sources said that ex-China imported HRC offers have been lowered during the past week by $5/mt to $590/mt CFR Mumbai, with most of the transactions reported by commercial importers.
The sources said that, at the same time, the premium of $15-20/mt for ex-Japan HRC has been withdrawn during the past week and hence several large domestic steel mills are reported to have concluded contracts for December deliveries although aggregate contracted volume figures are not readily available.
According to sources, ex-China CRC offers are also down significantly by $2/mt to $670/mt CFR Mumbai, with limited volumes contracted during the past week by traders.
As in the case of HRC, premiums on ex-Japan and ex-South Korea CRC have been withdrawn during the past week, reportedly because Japanese steel mills were intent on pushing high volumes overseas. Market sources said that an aggregate volume of 8,000 mt of ex-Japan and ex-South Korea CRC was concluded during the past week for December shipments.
Plate offers to India
Ex-China steel plate offers are unchanged for the second consecutive week at $640/mt CFR Mumbai, but no significant transactions have been reported in the market during the past week.