Indian hot rolled coil (HRC) exporters while maintaining silence in the Asian and Middle East destinations have showed strong optimism in Europe, succeeding in pushing through deals at the higher end of the offer range, even though the number of trades has remained on the lower side.
Sources said that Indian mills have been submitting offers in the wide range of $590-650/mt FOB, against $590-640/mt FOB last week, with the lower end of the range corresponding to the “notional” prices for Asia and the Middle East, while the higher end corresponds to offers in Europe. However, according to sources, several deals for small tonnages have worked out at around $630/mt FOB, triggering some optimism for overall trade activity improving in the New Year.
An eastern India-based integrated mill has reported a trade for 4,000 mt for delivery to Antwerp at $630/mt FOB and for delivery of another tonnage of 5,000 mt to Marghera, Italy, at $620-630/mt FOB, sources said. A western India-based exclusively flat steel producing mill has concluded a trade for 3,000 mt for delivery to Europe at $630/mt FOB, although a section of traders said that this sale was to a European affiliate of the seller and hence the deal was concluded at a slight discount to the offer.
“The mood is currently very mixed. Prices are improving in the west but the trade volume not so much, indicating that there is still a lot of caution among buyers. Imports into Vietnam are also on the rebound but India is still not the preferred source,” a source at Tata Steel told SteelOrbis. Notably, tradable prices for ex-China SEA1006 HRC in Vietnam have been voiced at $575-580/mt CFR this week, while indicative offers from India have been estimated at around $610/mt CFR.
“We are continuously assessing the market and will only re-enter once the price is viable for our investors. We are very strong in the domestic market and small-tonnage exports are not compelling enough to change our export allocations in the current quarter,” another source said.