Indian hot rolled coil (HRC) exports have been limited in the past week and, even though prices went down as bookings for emerging markets such as the Gulf and African countries dissipated, bids as low as $800-810/mt CFR from the Asian region were unacceptable to local steel mills, SteelOrbis has learned from trade and industry circles.
Ex-India HRC price levels have settled at $770-815/mt FOB, down from the range of $790-825/mt FOB last week.
Though some Indian mills have been maintaining offers at $820/mt FOB even after the lowering of local base prices, and such high export offers are not in tune with the overall sharp declines across markets in Asia, and buyers expecting further falls are largely staying away from concluding deals.
According to sources, a few mills were still offering at $850-860/mt CFR in Vietnam, but some offers for ex-India HRC have already been reported at $815-820/mt CFR Vietnam. At the same time, the tradable level in Vietnam is at $810/mt CFR and bids have already come to $800/mt CFR.
“Indian mills are lowering local prices to support weak local market conditions and be in line with the global downtrend. But still ex-India prices are very high and unacceptable to Asian buyers,” a source from a mill said.
In other markets, Turkey in particular, the latest offers for ex-India HRC have been reported at $850-855/mt CFR, down from the previous level of $870/mt CFR. But no new deals have been heard and the market has been waiting for further declines after lower-priced ex-CIS deals.
“In October 2021, for which official data are available, Indian steel exports was down 22 percent on year-on-year basis. Our assessment is that exports in November and December will see faster declines as the price fall in the Asian region is faster than local price declines,” the source said.
According to an official at ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel Limited (AMNS), small-volume deals from the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region had been supporting Indian export trades for a few weeks, but with the declines in prices widespread across various global regions, buying sentiment is extremely weak and Indian mills are already lowering export allocations for the current quarter and the next quarter and are using pricing tools to push higher volumes through local sales.
