Indian exporters of hot dip galvanized (HDG) coils have hiked their offer prices by around $15/mt week on week to $650-660/mt FOB, in order to offset rising input costs and take advantage of prices and demand in the US markets, traders said on Thursday, December 8.
“US steel prices continue to show signs of gaining strength, amid lower inventories held by US distributors. With US buyers are active in buying Indian HDG exports, local HDG producers have been pushing up offers to compensate for rising input costs,” a Mumbai-based trader said.
“Another plus for Indian exporters is that Chinese HDG producers are also pushing up offers on back of higher Chinese domestic demand, supporting Indian increases in offer levels,” the trader added.
However, some market sources said that fears of stiffer tariff barriers on steel imports by the incoming US administration continue to cause uncertainty among US buyers in the international steel market.
The sources said that last week such fears were compounded by reports that even some multi-national steel companies having steel mills in the US were advocating higher tariffs as a measure to force product output reductions by Chinese steel mills and bring greater balance to the oversupply situation in the global steel trade.