Indian exporters of hot dip galvanized (HDG) coil have kept their offers stable week on week at $665/mt FOB against a backdrop of rising ex-China offers and improved shipment volumes to key markets in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) region, traders said on Thursday, March 7.
“Indian commercial exporters are keeping offers stable to compete with rising ex-HDG offers and are reported to have increased shipments to the Gulf slightly,” a Mumbai-based trader said.
“Indian exporters believe that the rise in HDG prices in the Gulf region is unlikely to be sustained in the medium term as the market is showing divergent trends, with some flat product prices like cold rolled coil (CRC) remaining weak, but with HDG prices indicating an upward trend, and so they have decided to keep their export offers stable,” the trader added.
According to market sources, ex-China HDG offers are being pushed up in tandem with the hardening of Chinese domestic flat steel prices.
Similarly, in India too, large exporting steel mills are focusing on pushing sales in their domestic market where prices have been steadily on the rise over the past month and only traders are aggressively pushing export volumes, the sources added.