The Indian HRC export index remained flat w-o-w as most of the mills withheld offers. SteelMint’s Indian HRC export index stands at $877/tonne (t) FOB east coast. Mills have turned observant because of the festive holidays ahead, price increases in the domestic market, and low buying appetite in the overseas markets.
A couple of major private Indian mills announced an INR 2,000/t increase in HRC and CRC prices for Nov’21 dispatches. After the said hike, the prices for HRCs (IS 2062, 2.5-8mm) stand at around INR 71,500-72,500/t exy-Mumbai basis, and exclusive of GST @18%. Other mills are likely to follow suit.
Also, the trade segment has been largely quiet ahead of the Diwali festival on 4 Oct’21.
Indicative offers to Vietnam and the UAE continued to hover at around $910-920/t CFR basis. Meanwhile, indicative offers from Indian mills to Nepal are still around $875-885/t ex-plant (translating into $895-905/t CFR Raxaul border).
Rationale: Seven indicative prices were considered as T2 inputs while no major export deals were reported as T1. The final price was an average of T1 and T2 inputs which stood at $877/t FOB. The CFR prices were converted to FOB equivalent by deducting freight costs from the buyer/seller.
Global HRC market overview
1. Chinese HRC export offers down significantly w-o-w: HRC export offers from China dipped to $860-890/t FOB China as the sentiments in the domestic market dampened amid stringent measures taken by the government to control price manipulations majorly for thermal and coking coals. Also, competitive offers from Russia, India and other regions kept weighing on demand for Chinese-origin cargoes. Last week, export offers stood at $940-960/t FOB basis.
2. Imported HRC offers to Vietnam witness dip: Demand for imported HRCs in Vietnam continued to remain weak, while the gap in offers from exporting countries widened.
Current offers:
1. Tier II Chinese mills are offering HRCs (SS400) at around $885-900/t CFR Vietnam.
2. Offers from Kazakhstan for HRC (SAE 1006) were heard even low at $840/t CFR basis.
3. There were no offers heard today from Russian mills. Last offers were at around $880/t on CFR basis.
4. No offers were heard from Japan or South Korea.
3. Imported HRC offers to Pakistan decline $30/t w-o-w: Chinese HRC offers are now hovering at $910-920/t CFR Pakistan as against $940-950/t CFR basis a week back.
Towards the end of the previous week, Pakistani importers were heard to have booked 10,000 t (HRC SS400) for imports from China at $915-920/t CFR basis for Dec’21 delivery.
Also, offers from Taiwan were heard at around $965/t CFR basis. However, no offers were heard from Japan, Brazil, Kazakhstan and South Korea.
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