Indian exporters’ hot dip galvanized (HDG) coil offers have remained stable at $700/mt FOB during the past week, with a modest uptick in transaction volumes, traders said on Thursday, November 16.
“I presume that the firming up of US domestic flat product prices has triggered a revival of interest in ex-India HDG. Although the improvement in transaction volumes has been modest and is below market expectations, exporters are hoping that this improvement will be sustained,” a Mumbai-based trader said.
“However, there have been unconfirmed reports of discounts on offer and so some of the increase in transaction activity could be attributed to this,” the trader added.
On the other hand, at least two other traders have said that discounting is not widespread as most large exporting mills are not aggressive in pushing volumes overseas considering the strength of domestic demand.
Market sources said that there are no export offers of Indian HDG either to the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) region nor have there been any enquiries from the GCC, triggering speculation that Indian exporters have almost totally withdrawn from this market in the face of competition from ex-China HDG offers which have been reported in range of $720-730/mt CFR Gulf.