Indian integrated steel mills have aggressively pushed up hot rolled coil (HRC) export prices during the past week, amid limited trades resulting from low export allocations of mills and buyers’ cautious mood due to the sharp rise in landed prices.
The tradable value for Indian coils have increased by $5-10/mt to $540-550/mt FOB, taking into account bid prices in the major destinations. But market sources said that exporters have increased offer prices by $20/mt to $550-560/mt FOB and have ruled out responding to any bids lower than this range, which limited the number of trades concluded during the past week.
The sources said that the bullishness in the market among exporters is indicated by the fact that several producers have been talking of export prices touching the $600/mt mark on CFR basis in key export markets in the short term and hence have refrained from entertaining any bids at lower prices from buyers.
“The uptrend in flat product prices and the tightening of supplies is spreading across all markets in Asia, the Gulf and northern Europe. And this is not just pent-up demand from earlier lockdown months. The demand revival is more sustainable and growth projections are very strong,” an official at an Indian mill said.
“The market dynamics are the same in the local Indian market too. The uptrend in the export market will continue as there is not much material available for overseas shipments by any of the integrated steel mills and hence the downside risks to prices are negligible right though the last quarter of the current fiscal year,” he added.