Lower bids, competitive offers from other markets weigh on Indian HRC exports

• SteelMint's India HRC export index stays unchanged at $1,010/t FOB
  
  
• Competitive offers from China & re-emergence of offers from Russia attract buyers in UAE, Turkey
  
  
• Firm HRC inquiries from EU turn slow, Indian offers decline further by $50/t w-o-w
  
  

SteelMint's India HRC export index hovered at $1,010/t FOB east cost, unchanged on a weekly basis.

Market-wise updates:

• Vietnam end-users await price revision from domestic players: The Vietnamese HRC market remained muted since 9 April 2022, on account of Hung Kings' temple festival holidays, and will resume from 12 April 2022. However, a Chinese major was heard to have booked last week around 60,000 tonnes of HRCs (SAE1006) to Vietnam at $935-940/t CFR levels for May delivery. Buyers are concerned about the price direction for imported HRCs and are now waiting for the domestic mills to announce their prices for June and early-July sales in the upcoming days.
  
  
• Competitive prices from China, Russia attract UAE, Turkish buyers: Chinese mills continue to offer HRCs for export in the UAE market at around $980/t CFR, unchanged for the past couple of weeks. Meanwhile, ArcelorMittal Kazakhstan had booked HRCs for export at $960/t CFR a couple of weeks back. This continues to keep the buying interest low for Indian-origin HRCs in the market. However, Indian mills continued to offer at around $1,050-1,100/t CFR UAE for the second consecutive week. Thus, Indian offers remained of limited interest. Furthermore, re-emergence of offers from Russia attract buyers in Turkey. A Russian mill was heard to have concluded some HRC export deal at $1,000/t CFR Turkey. However, this could not be confirmed till the time of publishing the article.
  
  
• Limited buying power keeps interest low in the European market: The filling up of credit lines of the European buyers has kept the buying interest subdued for both domestic and imported HRCs in the region. Meanwhile, Indian mills are testing the market with reduced offers for S275 at around $1,200-1,250/t CFR in contrast to the previous week's offers of $1,250-1,300/t CFR."Indian mills may even be ready to conclude below $1,200/t CFR if they get a serious buying interest," commented a trading source.
  
  
• Depletion of forex reserves dampens interest of Nepalese buyers: Banks in Nepal have been tightening measures to prevent depletion of forex reserves. For this reason, Indian mills are not pushing for higher exports. However, a couple of deals were heard for end-May deliveries. Two rakes of HRCs were booked for exports at $995/t CFR ($975/t ex-plant) at the beginning of the month, followed by another deal of two rakes at $1,010/t CFR ($990/t ex-plant) at the beginning of the preceding week. Subsequent to this, indications are being heard at around $995-1,005/t CFR basis.
  
  

Outlook: Most of the mills are holding good volumes in their export order books till May. However, subdued buying interest in most of the importing countries might continue to weigh on the export offers from Indian mills.