By the end of this week, a few contracts for Chinese SS400 HRC by traders have been reported at $500-505/mt FOB, which is around $10/mt above the tradable value last week. Sources said that the contracts were for small volumes of 5,000-10,000 mt or even less each and the sales destinations were Pakistan and Africa.
These price levels were still too high for Vietnam, where bids have been heard mainly at $500-505/mt CFR for SAE1006 coils late this week. Ex-China HRC has been available at around $520/mt CFR and above. Offers from India have become rare at $510-520/mt CFR as Indian mills have been focusing more on their local market. Vietnamese customers have decided to concentrate on purchases of coils domestically. There have been reports of purchases at $505-507/mt CFR from Formosa Ha Tinh for SAE1006 HRC. As SteelOrbis reported earlier, Formosa Ha Tinh has increased coil prices for October delivery by $45/mt compared to last month.
Sentiment in the Asian HRC market has remained positive. Offers from Chinese mills have been stable at $505-520/mt FOB by the end of the week, though average local prices in China have ended the week down RMB 10/mt ($1.5/mt) compared to late last week.
