Indian exporters of hot dip galvanized (HDG) coil have maintained their offers unchanged at $730/mt FOB during the past week, and, while overall activity has remained low, the modest volumes have been transacted at discounts of around $10-15/mt for shipments to Southeast Asian markets, traders said on Thursday, July 26.
Market sources state that almost all of these ex-India HDG shipments to Southeast Asian markets were completed by commercial exporters with discounts in order to liquidate stocks, while large Indian exporting mills have remained out of the market.
“Even with the Indian currency depreciating and touching a new low of INR 70 against the US dollar during the past week, this has made no difference to Indian steel mills which have not changed their export offers, which are largely notional in the absence of any buyers,” a Mumbai-based trader said.
“A weak Indian currency is not a sufficient incentive for these large mills to aggressively push volumes overseas even with few buyers present, since they are getting a good price in the Indian market,” the trader added.
According to two other traders, buyers from the Gulf Cooperation Council markets are still seeking higher discounts in the range of $20-30/mt, but no Indian exporter is willing to conclude transactions at such lower net offers.