Indian integrated steel mills took a pause in hot rolled coil (HRC) export bookings in Asia after buyers’ price idea fell below the $500/mt FOB mark, SteelOrbis learned on Monday, September 28.
Market sources said that exporters’ price idea was still at $520-525/mt FOB, but neither the exporters are submitting official offers nor buyers are submitting bids as latter were seeking prices of not more than $510-520/mt on CFR basis.
Prices softened significantly in key export markets like Vietnam as ex-China deals were reported in the range of around $515-520/mt on CFR basis for SAE1006 HRC.
But Indian integrated steel mills are preferring to completely halt fresh bookings beyond mid-November shipments as they are unwilling to lower FOB prices as there are no pressure of inventories as both demand and prices in the domestic market are on a definitive uptrend, the sources said.
“There is no response in the market from either side. Buyers are unwilling to accept any offer upward of around $490/mt on FOB basis [equivalent to around $515/mt CFR Asia]. Indian integrated steel mills are under no compulsion to aggressively market overseas considering significantly higher realizations from local sales,” an official with a private steel mill said.
“We are very comfortable following sharp drawdown in inventories and strong local bookings. Hence exporters have stopped contracting new overseas sales. This might change only when export realizations improve above the $500/mt FOB mark at the minimum acceptable for local exporters,” he said.
Some negotiations of Indian sellers are still going on in the EU and the Middle East. The tradable value for regular not high volume bookings of ex-India HRC in Europe has been at $520-525/mt FOB.
