Ex-India hot rolled coil (HRC) prices have been relatively stable during the past week, with only some declines seen in the main sales destination, namely, Europe. Competition in the HRC market has remained tough even despite the recent hike in Chinese futures prices.
Ex-India HRC prices are at $570-595/mt FOB, with the higher end of the range down by $5/mt over the past week.
According to sources, some Indian mills have been more active in negotiations to the Middle East, but there have been no confirmed deals and offers to the UAE from traders are still ranging from $600/mt CFR to $620/mt CFR, which translates to $570-590/mt FOB. Taking into account the offers from China which are still at low levels of $550-570/mt CFR, bids from the UAE for ex-India material are below $600/mt CFR.
In addition, a deal for ex-India HRC has been reported to southern Europe at the equivalent to $590-595/mt FOB or €590/mt CFR, signaling a drop of up to $10/mt over the past week since previously the lowest offers to this destination were at $600/mt FOB. Also, there have been rumors about a sale to northern Europe at around $600/mt FOB or so, but this could not be confirmed by the time of publication.
“Indian mills are interested in export sales. But there are challenges as ex-China prices have been constantly declining,” a source at an Indian mill said.
“At a time when export allocations are decided for the first quarter of the next fiscal year (April-June), mills will need to factor in that exports will be sustained but lower price realizations will remain for sales across destinations. Each mill has to work out varied pricings depending on how much weightage each mill gives to exports,” the source said.