Indian export offers for hot dip galvanized (HDG) coil have maintained their levels during the past week at around $730/mt FOB in largely inactive market conditions, but a few commercial exporters were seen to be offering marginal discounts to push volumes and clear inventories, traders said on Thursday, July 12.
“Most large mills had pulled out of the HDG export markets due to a lack of interest from buyers. However, some commercial exporters offered marginal discounts of $10-15/mt, largely to clear their high-priced inventories, but only a small volume of transactions to the Gulf could be concluded despite discounts,” a Mumbai-based trader said.
“The depressed situation in the HDG export market could be gauged from the fact that, despite lowering offers earlier in the month and the weak rupee offering higher export margins, large mills have been unable to attract buyers, particularly buyers from the Gulf region,” the trader added.
According to another trader, among all flat product categories, Indian mills are focusing on cold rolled coil (CRC) and hot rolled coil (HRC) as they are able to ship higher volumes to Southeast Asian markets and they are pushing HDG shipments to the backburner as low-volume contracts are not sufficiently remunerative to compensate for overhead costs.