SteelMint’s Indian HRC (SAE 1006) export index stands at $827/t FoB East-coast basis, up by $42 w-o-w.
Indian steelmakers had raised their HRC export offers yesterday to $840-845/t CFR Vietnam. An Eastern India based mill has also managed to conclude a 20,000t HRC export deal to Vietnam’s Hoa Sen at $845/t, CFR Vietnam for May shipments, sources have confirmed to SteelMint.
Higher HRC export offers on bullish market trends along with an increased preference of Vietnam re-rollers for Indian origin HRC over China have supported the price hike.
“We are not actively offering for exports due to limited allocations for May shipments. However, we understand Indian mills are targeting $1000/t CFR Europe however bids are comparatively lower,” an Indian market participant reported.
European steel major – ArcelorMittal has raised HRC offers for the third time in Mar’21 according to recent media reports. The revised HRC offer now stands at Euro 900/t ($1,060/t). Domestic HRC prices in Europe have been rallying owing to demand-supply mismatch. Apart from that, limited inventories with mills, technical issues, maintenance shutdowns & delayed deliveries are some of the key reasons behind the price hike.
Rationale: Apart from one confirmed trade T1, nine indicative prices were considered as T2 inputs, with an average price of $827.5/t. The final price was an average of T2 inputs. The CFR prices were converted to FoB equivalent by deducting freight costs from the buyer/seller.
Global HRC market highlights-
1. Chinese HRC export offer on a continual uptrend- The Chinese mills have increased their offers for the seventh consecutive week with the recent spike of $55-70/t. Lack of clarity on the government’s action concerning the export rebate cut and rising marine-freight rates continues to drive the price upwards.
The current week assessed offers for HRC (SS400) stands at $820-840/t FoB China contrasted against $765-770/t FoB basis a week ago. Furthermore, a few tier-I mills are offering at around $850/t FoB basis contrasted against the previous week’s $780-790/t FoB basis.
2. Indian mills book HRC for export to Nepal, offers rise- A major private steel mill has booked around 4 rakes of HRC for export, SteelMint learned from credible channel partners. The deal was concluded at $740-750/t ex-plant basis, equivalent to $760/t CFR Raxaul Border and is scheduled for end Apr- May delivery. Also, the current offers are heard at $770/t CFR Raxaul border for May deliveries.
3. Imported HRC offers to Pakistan move up- After witnessing a sharp hike of $50/t in the previous week, imported HRC offers to Pakistan have further increased by $30-40/t from Japan and South Korea. The current week assessed offers for Japanese and South Korean mills stand at $920/t CFR basis as against previous week’s offer at $880/t CFR and $890/t CFR basis respectively.
4. CIS origin HRC offer rises further- CIS origin HRC export offers have witnessed a $15-25/t increase with the surge in overseas demand and supply constraints in the global market. Along with this, the increase in slab (input material) prices was also reflected in the offer from major HRC producers in CIS. As of this week, offers for HRC (S235JR) stands in the range of $830-855/t FoB Black Sea compared against $815-830/t FoB basis a week ago.
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