Indian exporters of hot dip galvanized coils (HDG) have increased offers by $5-10/mt week on week to $560-565/mt FOB to align prices after increasing domestic flat product base prices over the past week, but limited trades have been reported at discounts in key markets like the Gulf region and Southeast Asia in the face of buyers’ resistance to higher prices, SteelOrbis learned on Thursday, January 9.
Demand has continued to be low in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region and buyers were cautious in booking even small volumes. Large Indian exporting steel mills were also not very aggressive in pushing higher volumes overseas as most of these mills were readying to increase domestic base prices across flat products and expecting higher realizations from local HDG sales.
The sources said that a western India-based steel mill concluded an export contract for 7,000 mt of ex-India HDG at $562/mt FOB but after offering a discount of two percent on FOB basis for end-of-February delivery to the GCC.
Another western India-based steel mill has reported an export contract for 8,000 of ex-India HDG at a slightly higher offer of $565/mt FOB but at a discount, the size of which was not confirmed in the market, the sources added.