Indian exporters of hot dip galvanized (HDG) coils have nudged up their offers marginally by $5/mt during the past week to $510/mt FOB citing increased input costs and the weakening of the Indian currency, but only limited deals from Gulf buyers have been reported in the market, SteelOrbis has been informed.
Large exporting Indian steel mills have increased their offers also in anticipation of lower export volumes from Chinese steel mills in view of their expected lower production during the winter months and strong margins in their domestic market.
The exporting steel mills expect their marginally higher offers to compensate for the weaker levels of the rupee against the US dollar during the past several weeks.
Sources said that even the marginal increase in offers has faced resistance among buyers as reflected in market reports that only one western India-based steel mill has been able to conclude two deals for end-of-December delivery at $510/mt FOB with at least one trading source claiming that both deals were concluded after a discount offer of $5/mt, though this could not be confirmed independently.
“Buyers of most other key export markets like Southeast Asia have not responded to offers, indicating resistance to any kind of price increase and sentiments that lower volumes exports from China as expected during the next two months will only have a limited impact on prices in key overseas markets,” a Mumbai-based trader said.