Posted on 28 Apr 2022
Despite dropping hot rolled coil export offers, Indian mills are heard facing very limited buying interest from EU and Gulf Cooperation Council buyers. Initial Indian export offers are not receiving counter bids from buyers, as the latter are waiting for offers to go down further, sources inform Kallanish.
Initial offers to northern Europe have dropped by $30/tonne on-week to $1,130-1,150/t cfr Antwerp, equating to $1,010-1,020/t fob India, depending on mill and port of origin. Bulk-quantity quotes to southern Europe are heard at $1,100-1,115/t cfr Italy. Indian mills are heard offering structural grade HRC to southern Europe this week at $1,113/t cfr Italy. However, mills are ready to book cargoes at $1,050-1,080/t cfr Italy on firm bids from buyers.
Indian HRC export offers to Turkey have dropped to $1,010-1,020/t cfr Turkey. An Indian mill was heard offering a re-rolling grade cargo at $1,005-1,010/t cfr Turkey last week; however, the deal was not concluded.
“Buyers in Europe are in wait-and-watch position,” says a senior trader active in Europe. “They have recently booked a lot of semi-finished and flat-rolled steel; owing to this, their HRC requirement is satisfied for the moment. They might resume bookings for the next quarter once HRC prices return to its normal.”
Indian mills have dropped their re-rolling HRC offers by $20-30/t to $960-980/t cfr GCC, to compete against the low offers floated by competitors. No deal was heard concluding in United Arab Emirates this week. India is still refraining from offering HRC to Vietnam.
Indian E250 grade HRC domestic quotes meanwhile plunged to INR 73,000-73,500/t ($952) ex-Mumbai. Offers for E350 and galvanized plain sheet however hiked to INR 75,000-75,500/t and INR 85,000-85,500/t ex-Mumbai, respectively.
India is expected to drop its export offers further to secure deals, as the nation is also not getting demand support from the domestic market. All domestic consumers – OEMs and retail buyers – are seen refraining from buying excess quantities in order to maintain inventories. End users are buying only the required quantities to carry out their operations.
Mills are meanwhile still speculating over a price hike on the back of costlier coking coal. However, in the long run, they are expected to accept the price drop in order to secure HRC sales in the domestic and export markets.
Source:Kallanish
