Indian exporters of hot dip galvanized (HDG) have increased their offers during the past week by about $10/mt to $720/mt FOB, risking a further fall in shipment volumes overseas, traders said on Thursday, December 21.
“The increase was actually a rollback of cuts in offers in the previous week. Exporters are caught in a bind. The lowering of offers earlier failed to trigger any buying interest. At the same time, with input costs increasing, exporting steel mills have been forced to reverse the cut in offers and commercial exporters have also followed suit,” a Mumbai-based trader said.
“I foresee HDG export offers further creeping up to offset input cost increases even at the cost of export volumes, as current offer levels are unviable in view of the combination of increasing input costs and the appreciation of the Indian rupee against the US dollar,” he added.
Market sources said that US buyers are virtually absent from the Indian market. They said that, with US domestic HDG prices stable, US steel distributors are unlikely to conclude any import transactions until a definite upward trend in US prices becomes clear.