Indian hot rolled flat products exports soared by over six-fold on-year in June to a mammoth 1.19 million tonnes in a single month, according to Indian commerce ministry provisional data seen by Kallanish. As with their 291% on-year surge in May, June exports were driven by deliveries to China which reached 520,115t versus virtually zero a year earlier.
Strong demand also continued from Vietnam, which increased intake over 12-fold to 459,195t. United Arab Emirates increased intake 7% to 54,204t and Taiwan took in 53,513t compared to zero last year. Nepal, however, decreased intake -36% to 34,306t.
Spain and Saudi Arabia also considerably increased intake in June, but intake by Belgium slumped.
The most-exported product was HR unpickled wide strip below 3mm thick under HS code 720839 whose shipments reached 966,069t. Their average value was $374/tonne versus $522/t in June 2019 and $376/t in May 2020.
Indian HR flats exports in January-June thus surged 74% on-year to 3.67mt, with top three markets Vietnam, China and UAE respectively all increasing intake. Fourth and fifth-placed markets Italy and Nepal decreased intake.
After the end of the first quarter Indian HR flats exports had slumped -17% on-year to 1.13mt (see Kallanish passim). Their revival in Q2 was driven by Vietnam and especially China. The latter sourced zero from India in Q1, yet in the first half of 2020 it took in 959,399t versus 41t in H1 2019.
