Indian Mills are Decreasing Offers For Hot Rolled Coil Amidst The Chinese Mills’ Shutdown

This week, the Hot Rolled Coil prices witnessed a plunging trend in the Indian market owing to the muted demand. Following the rising inflationary pressure in the United States and European region, inquiries from the downstream players dropped. As per market players, the current situation is subjugating the market dynamics in Vietnam, the Middle East, and Europe, where downstream manufacturers are not booking quotations for the Indian Hot Rolled Coil. Thus, Indian manufacturers are still hesitant to cite low numbers and request consumers to submit quotation offers. Buyers aware of Indian offers in various markets are submitting lower bids and are willing to close deals at significant discounts.

Also, the inflationary pressure in Western markets has severely impacted the Indian Hot Rolled Coil by reducing buying queries from European and Vietnam players. According to the traders, the Vietnam market is poor, with high inventories, and has forced domestic prices of Hot Rolled Coil to falter. Bookings from Vietnam are low; no Indian manufacturers have drifted any offers this week to Vietnam. Overseas players cite that the Indian mills offer lower numbers to Vietnam and higher numbers to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) buyers, favoring Vietnamese sellers because their freight to the US is lower than GCC; thus, selling the Hot-Rolled Coil at a lower price to Vietnamese kicks GCC players out of the competition.

Steel mills in China have increased production curtailments, with some private factories starting to shut down production activity on a large scale to reduce market supply and relieve market pressure. Fujian Sanbao Steel has shut down its blast furnace for 45 days, beginning on July 20, and has diminished iron production and finished steel output, including Steel Rebar, Steel Wire Rod, and Hot Rolled Coil. Furthermore, Shandong Guangfu Group began shutting down its Steel plant on July 19, with no estimated restart date. According to ChemAnalysts, the Indian rupee has reached INR 80/dollar this week, allowing Indian mills to lower their offers even further without jeopardizing their rupee realizations. However, European and Turkish buyers are also facing currency depreciation, which may limit the ability of Indian mills to trade there.