- Largely booked allocations keep fresh offers limited
- Higher domestic realisations keep mills’ focus on Indian market
India’s HRC export offers showed mixed trends across key destinations in the assessment week ended 1 September 2026, as largely booked export allocations and stronger domestic realisations reduced mills’ incentive to actively pursue fresh overseas sales. With domestic HRC prices moving higher, producers largely prioritised the local market and remained selective on export orders, resulting in limited offers across the Middle East, Vietnam and Europe.
HRC export offers to EU remain unchanged w-o-w
India’s HRC export index to the EU remained unchanged w-o-w at around $605/t FOB. Trading activity remained weak amid the summer holiday slowdown, while the October-December 2026 quota is already fully booked. With no quota space remaining for the current period, additional volumes would attract the applicable out-of-quota duty, making new bookings commercially unviable. Market participants are therefore largely waiting for the next booking window, expected to open in October for the Q1CY’27 quota period.
HRC export offers to Middle East, Southeast Asia rise
India’s HRC export index to the Middle East and Southeast Asia rose by $10/t w-o-w to around $535/t FOB, compared with $525/t a week earlier, driven by higher offers to both the Middle East and Vietnam.
Offers to the Middle East stood at around $545/t FOB, up by $15/t w-o-w from $530/t a week ago, with freight to Fujairah estimated at around $60/t. Similarly, Chinese HRC export offers to the Middle East rose by $5/t w-o-w to around $580/t CFR Jeddah, from $575/t in the previous week.
In Vietnam, Indian HRC export offers increased by $10/t w-o-w to around $540/t CFR Ho Chi Minh City, from $530/t previously. However, the persistent gap between mills’ offers and Vietnamese bids continued to limit trading activity. Amid higher domestic realisations, Indian mills remained unwilling to lower export offers to meet buyer bids, with no fresh HRC bookings to Vietnam heard during the week.
Overall, limited offers were heard to both regions, with largely booked export allocations and firm domestic prices reducing mills’ willingness to pursue fresh overseas sales.
Outlook
Indian HRC export activity is likely to remain limited in the coming week, as mills have largely filled their export allocations and are achieving better realisations in the domestic market. With domestic prices offering stronger returns, mills are likely to have less incentive to pursue additional overseas volumes, while keeping export offers firm.
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