Indian HRC Export Offers Unchanged despite Low Buying Interest

Indian steelmakers have maintained export offers for HRC despite competitive offers from Chinese, Korean, Russian and Japanese steelmakers. Current offers for 2 mm HRC assessed at USD 400/MT, FoB India.

Some shipments of 2 mm HR coil to Middle East are recorded at USD 402/MT, FoB West Coast India, in 2^nd week of June. Indian steelmakers prefer to hold offers due to high production cost. Indian HRC export has hit in last few months owing to mismatched production cost and global prices.

“Indian manufacturers are not offering below USD 400/MT, FoB India. Whereas, Korean and Chinese manufacturers’ offers are lower by at least USD 20-30/MT. At these offers, we do not see much of exports taking place from India”, said a trader associated with one of the large trading houses in India.

Indian flat steel export in Apr’15 and May’15 was 518,000 MT, out of which HRC and sheets were 112,000 MT, CRC was 130,000 MT and MS plate was 42,000 MT and GP/GC Sheet/Coil was 231,000 MT.

Indian manufacturers are hopeful that recent increase in import duty by the government will help to restrict import. Steelmakers are bullish on domestic demand. Manufacturers have maintained offers in domestic market at INR 34,000-35,000/MT (including Excise). Net sales realization would be around INR 27,500-28,500/MT (excluding excise).

HRC Prices as on 26 Jun’15

Source: SteelMint Research