Vietnamese HRC end-users have decided to make a pause in purchases, waiting for new prices from the local producer Formosa Ha Tinh and assessing the situation in the import market after the sharp increase in offer prices.
After the latest deals for Chinese SAE1006 coils at $550/mt CFR and $553/mt CFR Vietnam late last week, buyers are still bidding at this level, but Chinese exporters have hiked offers together with local prices. So recent offers from China to Vietnam have been at $560-580/mt CFR.
There has been information about new offers from Russia for January production HRC at $545/mt CFR, while bids have been starting from $535/mt CFR. No new bookings have been heard so far.
An offer from one Indian mill is still at $560/mt CFR after rising by $10/mt late last week. But the level is mainly indicative, sources have said, due to very limited export allocation at Indian mills, who are focused on local sales.
A Japanese mill has been targeting $580/mt CFR in Vietnam, up from the level of $560/mt CFR 10 days ago.
“All Vietnam mills seem to have stopped bidding until next week. They are waiting for the Formosa HRC price,” a local source told SteelOrbis. “There have been no new deals yet. Baosteel has increased domestic HRC prices. Sentiment is bullish,” another source said. Formosa Ha Tinh is expected to come out with its new prices for January delivery HRC, which are expected to be at around $555-560/mt CFR, up by about $20-25/mt since last month.
The SteelOrbis reference price for imported HRC in Vietnam has been increased slightly by $2.5/mt on average from Friday to $550-555/mt CFR.