This week most Indian HRC suppliers have decided to maintain their export prices relatively stable despite the growing pressure coming from the sharp price drops in China. Besides, local demand has also failed to pick up despite the current festival season in India, putting additional pressure on Indian HRC mills.
Specifically, ex-India HRC prices have been voiced at $525-565/mt FOB, against $535-565/mt FOB last week. Most offers for ex-India HRC in the Middle East are still voiced at around $570/mt CFR, which corresponds to around $530/mt FOB, though this is considered to be “unworkable” given the more attractive offers from Japan at $550/mt CFR and from China at around $540/mt CFR and even lower. “There has been pressure from Chinese suppliers who reduced their prices for costumers in the Gulf region, but Indian suppliers are simply ignoring the reality, at least for now,” a market source said.
Meanwhile, offers for ex-India HRC in Europe have been voiced at around $600-630/mt CFR, which translates to $550-565/mt FOB, mainly the same as last week, though no deals have been reported so far due to safeguard and antidumping duty risks in the region.
However, according to sources, regular deals from India HRC mills have been reported in Nepal at $560-570/mt delivered to border, which translates to around $525-530/mt FOB.
At the same time, the local HRC market In India is not showing much improvement, putting addition pressure on Indian mills. “The market looks weak and sentiments are also low, while traders in the retail market don’t mind giving some further discounts of INR 500/mt ($6/mt) to get orders,” a market insider told SteelOrbis. According to sources, a number of Indian traders have been offering their materials with additional discounts at INR 47,500-48,000/mt ($565-571/mt), as SteelOrbis reported earlier.
