Indian hot rolled coil (HRC) exporters have faced multiple stiff challenges of weak prices and demand in key overseas markets, as well as pressure to increase overseas shipments in view of falling local demand, which resulted in over 100,000 mt of export bookings over the past week, SteelOrbis learned from trade and industry circles.
Ex-India HRC prices have declined to $870-890/mt FOB, moving down below the $900/mt mark after several months, down by $40-50/mt compared to stray deals concluded a week ago.
After failing to attract the interest of Vietnamese buyers in past weeks, Indian suppliers have cut offers from $940-950/mt CFR and managed to sell at least two lots of 30,000 mt each at $910-915/mt CFR last week. This price corresponds to about $870/mt FOB or slightly above. Early this week, negotiations have been held at $920-925/mt CFR ($880/mt FOB) and, though the new bookings have not been confirmed by the time of publication, some sources said that additional volumes could be sold at this level or even at a slightly higher price in the near future. Offers from India are coming at $925-935/mt CFR Vietnam now.
In addition, an eastern India-based steel mill has reported a small-volume booking to an Asia-based trading firm at around $880-890/mt FOB.
Apart from Vietnam, Turkey has become an attractive sales destination for India to push volumes. One deal for 30,000 mt of ex-India HRC was done at $945/mt CFR, according to sources, translating to $885-890/mt FOB. Another lot of 20,000 mt is also rumored to have been sold at slightly below $950/mt CFR, but this could not be confirmed by the time of publication.
Buying in the EU has almost dried up and no significant deals have been reported over the past week ever since the EU import quotas for ex-India HRC at lower tariffs were exhausted on the very first day of the month. This coupled with a slight softening of prices was prompting buyers to stall fresh import bookings.
“India will not impact prices in Europe directly as the quota is full, but India may drop prices in Turkey and this may lead to Turkey cutting prices for Europe - this scenario has started to work,” a market source told SteelOrbis.
Nevertheless, most India sources believe that export prices have already hit bottom for now, while rebounding prices in China and lower allocation will support the international HRC market in the near future.