Ex-India hot dip galvanized (HDG) prices have been maintained at around $790-810/mt FOB, but no significant trade has been reported during the past week, with sellers desisting from submitting offers due to the year-end holidays and at the same time buyers confused over the pricing outlook, traders and officials at integrated steel mills said on Thursday, December 31.
The traders and mill officials said that buyers are largely seen to be off the market caught unawares by the weakening of sentiment in the Chinese market towards the close of the week despite the positive medium-term outlook for finished steel products and have preferred to await definitive price trends in the New Year before starting import transactions.
“The slight fall in ex-China offers is not a big negative and more of a blip as prices of most flat products in key markets like the Gulf and the EU are very positive. Buyers are staying away just for the year-end holidays and prices will start trending higher as business activities pick up in the New Year,” an official from ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel said.
“For exporters it is a good time to assess the market and decide on pricing for the last quarter of the current fiscal year. Any adjustment will necessarily be upwards as input costs particularly that of zinc in the case of HDG are moving up on low domestic availability,” he added.
The sole stray deal reported during the past week was a trade for 12,000 mt by a western India-based steel mill with a trading firm in the EU at around $800-805/mt FOB, market sources said.
