Indian CRC export offers to EU remain range-bound post-Easter holidays

• Thin trading for May shipments from Indian mills
  
  
• Chinese CRC export offers inch down w-o-w
  
  

Indian CRC export offers to Europe (EU) remained range-bound w-o-w to $740-745/t CFR ($690-700/t FOB east coast India). Despite of stable market offers post-Easter holidays, a deal of around 4,000-5,000 tonnes (t) has been heard concluded for May 2024 shipments, sources informed BigMint.

Factors driving CRC export prices

1. Global CRC export offers drop w-o-w: Chinese CRC export offers declined by $5/t w-o-w to $615/t FOB this week against $620/t FOB previous week, following the fall in Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) HRC futures.

Chinese SHFE futures declined by RMB 51/t ($7/t) w-o-w to RMB 3,692/t ($510/t) this week against RMB 3,743/t ($517/t) on 27 March. However, remained stable on d-o-d basis.

2. HRC prices remain flat w-o-w: Indian HRC export offers to EU (S275, 3mm) held steady at $640-650/t CFR Antwerp, mirroring CRC. Post-Easter holidays, trade activity in the region also remained low. Moreover, buyer's are in a wait-and-watch mode, hesitating to purchase imports due to uncertainties surrounding safeguard import duty measures. Furthermore, domestic EU HRC prices are on a downward trend amid weaker demand in the EU market, pressuring European mills to cut their prices and stimulate sales.

Outlook: Indian CRC export offers may remain under pressure due to the weaker global market sentiments, with Chinese prices dropping. Moreover, slow trade activities in the European market may also push prices down. Also, China's Qingming Festival holiday is scheduled over 4-5 April, which may result in keeping prices range-bound this week.

In the medium term, reports indicated that the China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology intends to organise a symposium involving major steel companies with an objective to delve into the challenges and underlying issues hindering the steel industry's development, aiming to facilitate its smooth operation and sustainable growth. Consequently, market speculation suggested that forthcoming measures, including production reduction initiatives and crackdowns on illegal production capacity, might be implemented to bolster the industry.