Indian exporters of hot dip galvanized (HDG) coils have lowered their offers for the fifth consecutive week by $10/mt week on week to $595/mt FOB, to be in line with softening ex-China offers amid slight improvement in shipments to few key markets, traders said on Thursday, June 6.
Market sources state that while buyers in Gulf regions have continued to remain inactive, a few local merchant exporters were able to revive transactions in markets like Indonesia and Vietnam although shipment volumes were modest.
“This has been one of the most prolonged adjustments of ex-India HDG offers. But with ex-China offers steadily moving southwards, local merchant exporters have little choice to match the downturn and market presence in key markets even though this means risking negligible margins,” a Mumbai-based trader said.
“However, it is significant that large Indian exporting mills are largely inactive in export segment as they prefer to focus on domestic sales where local mills are able to continuously nudge up domestic prices,” the trader added.
At least two other traders state that key to any change in levels of export activity in the short term would be determined by resumption of business activity in Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) region with the end of Ramadan month.