Though in general demand for import HRC in Vietnam has been slow, some interest has been seen for Malaysian SAE1006 HRC given its attractive price compared to all other Asian exporters. At the same time, Chinese offers have increased compared to last week, though the uptrend was not very strong with offers rolling back slightly by the end of the week.
Around 30,000 mt of ex-Malaysia SAE1006 HRC have been traded at $502/mt CFR for early October shipment to Vietnam over the past week, which was the lowest level for this grade in the market. “It is a good discount because offers were at $520/mt CFR,” a market source said.
Offers from Indonesia and Japan for SAE1006 HRC have been heard at $510/mt CFR and $515/mt CFR, respectively, almost the same as last week. The ex-South Korea price for the same grade is at $520/mt CFR. The Chinese price for SAE1006 was at $510/mt CFR early this week, but small discounts have been achievable by the end of the week, following the decline in futures prices. Most Asian sellers are offering SAE HRC for October shipment, though the Indonesian mill has some September shipment allocation, according to market sources.
The SteelOrbis reference price for import SAE1006 HRC stands at $502/mt CFR, versus $505/mt CFR last week.
As for offers for ex-China 2,000 mm Q235 HRC, they have posted an increase this week - by around $8-10 in total, supported by rises in the local market in anticipation of production cuts in Tangshan announced for August 16-September 3 and hikes in local coking coal prices seen in the first half of this week. In particular, offers for this grade and size (free from antidumping duty) reached the highest levels of $500-505/mt CFR in the middle of the week, surging from $487-490/mt CFR seen last week. But by Friday, the sellers’ targets have eased a little - to $498/mt CFR. And though this level is still higher than the general range last week and it is not in the range of interest of buyers, while the recent fluctuations in China signal that the trend has not settled yet and the market needs more fundamentals drivers like real production cuts, etc.