Indian exporters of hot dip galvanized (HDG) coil have maintained their offers at $760/mt FOB during the past week amid a marginal uptick in transaction activity in the Gulf region even as buyers from the US continued to remain absent from the Indian market, traders said on Thursday, March 29.
Sources said that buyers in the Gulf Co-operation Council region have showed a marginal increase in interest and the number of transactions has improved during the week though volumes have remained limited.
Overall, global HDG prices have been trending lower with a softening in offer prices of ex-China HDG, the sources said, adding that, though Indian exporters have maintained their HRG offers unchanged, most of the Indian transactions in the Gulf have been concluded with discounts in the range of $10-15/mt on FOB basis.
The sources said that Gulf transactions on CFR basis have been in the range of $790-820/mt factoring in discounts offered during transactions.
“The marginal upturn in activity in the Gulf was welcomed by Indian exporters as it offered them a window to maintain their presence in the overseas HDG market as buyers from US were totally absent in the wake of the imposition of import tariffs by the US administration,” a Mumbai-based trader said.
“But most export activity was confined to Indian commercial traders as most domestic mills had reduced their interest in pushing HDG volumes overseas as they were getting good volumes and prices in their domestic market,” the trader added.