Indian Steel Mills Raise HRC Export Offers to Nepal

Major Indian steel mills increased their imported HRC offers by USD 10/MT for Jan'20 deliveries, SteelMint learned from market sources.

Improved offers for Vietnam, and higher steel prices in India's domestic market, over improved trades, pushed Indian mills to raise HRC export offers for Nepal too.

Thus, the latest HRC (IS 10748) export offers to Nepal stand at USD 440-445/MT ex-plant, which is equivalent to USD 460-465/MT CFR Raxual border for Jan'20 deliveries. However, no major bookings have been reported yet.

A trade source based in Nepal shared that, " Indian steel mills have adopted a wait and watch mode for HRC export offers to Nepal since prices are likely to increase in the domestic market. Thus, this may push export offers further for Jan deliveries."

Prior this, in mid Nov'19 Indian steel mills booked around 7-8 rakes of HRC at around 430-435/MT (ex-plant) basis, which is equivalent to USD 450-455/MT CFR Raxual border for Dec deliveries.

Nepal HRC/Plate imports in Jan-Oct'19- Nepal's HRC/Plates import stood at 0.40 MnT in Jan-Oct'19 in comparison with 0.38 MnT in Jan-Oct '18. Major exporting nation's include, India at 0.37 MnT, followed by China at 0.03 MnT, and Taiwan at 0.01 MnT in Jan-Oct '19.

Indian HRC export offers to Vietnam- Major Indian steel mills have raised HRC export offer to Vietnam at the beginning of this week at USD 470/MT CFR Vietnam for Jan shipments, which was USD 460/MT CFR Vietnam towards the beginning of this week.

Thus, Vietnamese buyers have increased appetite for Indian origin cargoes over cost-effective imports compared to China which motivated mills to raise the offers consistently.

HRC export offers from China are assessed at USD 470/MT CFR Vietnam, and that from Japan and South Korea are heard around USD 470-480/MT CFR Vietnam basis. Russian HRC offer to Vietnam stands at USD 460/MT CFR basis.