Indian exporters of hot dip galvanized (HDG) coil have lowered their offers for the second consecutive week, pruning them by $15/mt week on week to around $585/mt FOB, but have failed to evoke any buying interest from key markets, traders said on Thursday, August 8.
According to the traders, while demand in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) region was down significantly as buyers have been unwilling to conclude transactions ahead of the religious holiday in the region, buyers in other key markets in Southeast Asia have remained cautious waiting for ex-China offers to weaken further in the wake of the weakening of the RMB and the fresh US-China trade skirmish.
“The weakening of the Indian rupee against the US dollar has provided a window for local HDG exporters to adopt aggressive pricing. But this has failed to achieve any significant trade volumes during the past week. The moot point for buyers is not ex-India offers at the moment. Buyers instead prefer to wait for new pricing trends to emerge following the weakening of the Chinese currency and the impact of fresh US tariffs on Chinese export pricing,” a Mumbai-based trader said.