Apart from the reported previous deals from Vietnam and Taiwan to China, new transactions for ex-India and ex-S. Korea HRC are reported to have been done last week. The latest contracts reflected a further price increase, but were for small volumes. At the moment, Chinese customers are cautious, watching developments in the local market.
About 20,000 mt of ex-South Korea HRC was traded at $480/mt CFR China last week. Also, there has been information about a sale from India at around $470-475/mt CFR China, but this has not been confirmed by the buyer’s side by the time of publication. Indian coils are subject to three percent duty in China, while HRC from S. Korea has a lower duty of 1.2 percent.
Prices for imported HRC in these latest deals reflected an increase of at least $10/mt compared to the previous transactions.
As SteelOrbis reported earlier, importers from China bought 100,000 mt of ex-Vietnam HRC at $470-475/mt CFR, while ex-Taiwan coils were traded at $475/mt CFR. HRC in both these deals are not subject to duties in China.
Nevertheless, “sporadic Covid-19 cases have been seen in several cities in China, increasing market players’ worries regarding the future prospects for the HRC market, slowing down transaction activities in both local and import markets,” an international trader told SteelOrbis. Most bids for imported HRC in China do not exceed $475/mt CFR, sources said.
As of July 28, HRC futures at the Shanghai Futures Exchange are standing at RMB 3,749/mt ($536/mt), decreasing by RMB 38/mt ($5.4/mt) or 1.0 percent since July 21.
$1 = RMB 6.9895