Posted on 27 Sep 2023
Indian hot rolled coil producers aim to hike HRC offers further in the domestic market, mainly on the back of strong demand and an uptick in raw material prices.
Meanwhile, Indian HRC continues to remain absent from the global market, and going forward, mills’ priority will be to offer more allocations domestically, based on better sales realisations, Kallanish notes.
“There is almost a difference of $50-100/tonne in the domestic market versus the export market, and owing to this, mills do not want to dent their realisations by selling for export,” a source informs. “Furthermore, buyers in Europe have a lot of inventories, and a majority of them are waiting for October to get clarity on quotas and order positions for the last quarter.”
Indian mills continue to indicate structural-grade HRC offers at $680-690/t cfr Antwerp, but no major deals have been concluded. No firm offers to the Gulf Cooperation Council or Vietnam have been heard this week.
Meanwhile, offers of cold rolled coil were heard at $735-740/t cfr Antwerp. Indian suppliers are holding their offers for galvanized coil mainly because of limited allocations.
A deal for 2,000-3,000 tonnes of CRC was made at $670-680/t cfr Malaysia by an Indian major last week. CRC quotes to the GCC are being voiced at $700-710/t cfr GCC.
In the Indian domestic market, retail E250-grade HRC offers are heard at INR 57,750-58,000/t ($693.86) ex-Mumbai. Offers for E350 and GP coils are noted at INR 59,800-60,500/t and INR 66,500-67,000/t, respectively, ex-Mumbai.
In the retail market, imported HRC is being offered at INR 57,000-57,250/t cfr Mumbai.
“Indian mills are bullish for the October month in the domestic market,” a source informs. “Demand for steel is expected to rise further amid festive seasons in India, the departure of rain, and supply shortages.”
Speaking of supply shortages, the sources adds: “A major Indian HRC producer is planning a maintenance shutdown in the first week of October for 10-12 days, and at the same time, China will be off too [for the National Day Golden Week holiday], meaning Indian HRC producers are seeing this as an opportunity to place their hike at the right time.”
Source:Kallanish
