Indian hot dipped galvanized (HDG) coil exports came to a near halt over the past week with widening of gap between offers and bids with neither buyer nor seller willing to adjust to conclude deal, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles on Thursday.
The tradable price level for ex-India HDG has fallen to $1,290-1,320/mt FOB versus $1,325/mt FOB on average a week earlier. But even these prices have been considered by buyers as too high as bids have dropped further and have been hardly above $1,250/mt FOB. Buyers were resisting high price following softening of flat product prices in the EU in wake of increased supplies and Gulf buyers largely away for Ramadan.
“With number of offers increasing in the EU region, buyers too have more options and are resisting high prices. Large volume availability is also putting pressures on local EU flat products and hence Indian exporters are largely unable to convert offers to deals,” an official in a private mill said.
“So far local mills are unwilling to rush into lowering offers even with domestic demand sluggish. Mills will wait for end of Ramadan early next month and assess revival of demand before taking a new pricing strategy. The downtrend in EU flat product price is also being assessed,” he said.
Another official pointed out that March automobile sales in the EU was down 20 percent and it is not clear whether this is from weakening of demand or supply chain disruption. An affirmation on either of the two will set a new price direction before which Indian shipments will remain at negligible levels.