Indian mills have continued to stay away from submitting hot rolled coil (HRC) offers overseas with prices notionally remaining unchanged at $590-620/mt FOB, as in major Asian destinations such as Vietnam cheaper alternatives for ex-China have kept invading the market, while in the other outlets like the Middle East no Indian mill has reported any trade over the past week due to geo-political uncertainties in the region and tough competition with other Asian suppliers.
Sources said that, while global prices have continued to soften and local Indian sales realizations have kept improving, Indian mills’ exit from the export markets is expected to continue in the medium term and export allocations of most large producers will remain “minimal” and just enough for “market maintenance purposes”.
“There is still some optimism over overseas sales through long-term contract negotiations. While ongoing talks between at least two or three local integrated mills and EU-based buyers are still giving positive signals, nothing can be predicted in volatile global markets until such contracts are confirmed,” an official at a private mill told SteelOrbis.
Furthermore, according to sources, there are some positive signs of ex-China prices improving amid higher HRC futures prices. But the gap with ex-India prices is still too large. At the same time, there are also improved domestic supplies in key destinations like Vietnam. However, Indian mills “are not getting into a pricing war” to sell overseas. Hence, most expectations are now on buyers from the EU region where prices may have touched the bottom.