Ex-India hot dip galvanized (HDG) coil prices have remained relatively unchanged over the past week, but trade activity is still on halt amid a combination of factors including negligible export allocations on the supply side and low bids considered unworkable by sellers already having negligible volumes for overseas sales, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Thursday, January 5.
Sources said that ex-India HDG (Grade Z120) are stable in the range of $675-710/mt FOB and stray bids have been reported at lows of $650-660/mt FOB. However, no large mill is under any pressure to aggressively adjust offers to sell overseas.
For most large mills there is very strong demand and tight supplies of flat steel in the domestic market. Hence, volumes available for galvanizing are very limited and even these volumes are being absorbed in the domestic market and mills have negligible export surpluses nor are they are under pressure to face pricing challenges in overseas markets, the sources said.
The largest buyers of HDG are domestic automobile manufacturers which use it for exportable passenger cars and, with such exports rising by about 25 percent year on year, local demand for HDG is also rising, thereby prompting mills to have keep export allocations at low levels.
