In the past week, Indian exporters of hot dip galvanized (HDG) coil have maintained their offers unchanged at $635/mt FOB but have failed to conclude any significant transactions amid the weakness of demand in key destination markets and also due to buyers seeking additional discounts which were not granted by sellers, traders said on Thursday, January 17.
“Buyers from key markets like the Gulf region who were active earlier in the month for small-volume deals have completely pulled out and Indian traders have been unable to conclude any transactions during the week,” a Mumbai-based trader said.
“With ex-China HDG offers reported to be inching down, buyers have been seeking discounts in the range of $15-20/mt on ex-India offers, but Indian traders have been unwilling to concede discounts to push volumes overseas,” the trader added.
According to two other traders, HDG prices are expected to come under renewed pressure and hence most buyers in key Indian export destinations like the Gulf and Southeast Asian markets prefer not to conclude deals at the moment.
The traders said that, in view of the EU safeguard measures on import flat steel products, a lot of excess material is expected to be diverted to other markets like Southeast Asia and this will put HDG prices under pressure.
However, Indian exporters do not have much pricing power to aggressively adjust offers to conclude overseas shipments, the traders added.