Vietnamese steel producer Formosa Ha Tinh Steel has today, February 16, announced its new prices for local HRC for April deliveries, raising them by $60/mt compared to the previous month. The more bullish views of Chinese and other HRC suppliers seen in February and the expected demand improvement in Vietnam have supported the producers’ move, although most market insiders believe that new prices are too high for most local buyers so far.
Formosa Ha Tinh has increased its offers for non-skin passed SAE1006 HRC and SS400 HRC to local customers to $695/mt CFR, up by $60/mt month on month. Skin-passed SAE1006 HRC coils have been priced for April at $700/mt CFR, versus $640/mt CFR last month. “Formosa’s new prices are higher than we thought, as we expected an increase to around $680/mt CFR. So, we are wondering if this level can be accepted by buyers in today’s market with the still slow demand recovery,” a market insider told SteelOrbis.
Meanwhile, the sharp rise in local prices is considered by some market sources as a reflection of the better expectations for the current month coupled with the bullishness of foreign HRC suppliers. In particular, the latest offers for SAE1006 HRC from China have been heard at $670-680/mt CFR, up by $10/mt since the beginning of the week. Besides, some ex-China offers have already been heard at $690/mt CFR and above. However, according to sources, most bids from Vietnamese buyers are still coming at $650-660/mt CFR. Offers for ex-China SS400 HRC have settled at around $625/mt CFR, versus deal prices at $610-615/mt CFR reported at the end of last week and beginning of this week. Meanwhile, Indian suppliers have been mainly staying out of the Vietnamese market, focusing on higher-priced destinations, with the indicative offers for SAE1006 HRC estimated at above $700/mt CFR Vietnam. Furthermore, indicative offers for ex-Japan materials have been heard at $690-700/mt CFR.
For now, the SteelOrbis reference price for import SAE1006 HRC in Vietnam is at $670/mt CFR, versus $660-670/mt CFR at the start of this week.
