Vietnamese steel producer Formosa Ha Tinh Steel has announced its new prices for local HRC for August-September shipments, raising them by $10-15/mt compared to the previous month. The more bullish views of Chinese and other HRC suppliers seen in late June-early July have supported the producers’ move, although most market insiders believe that new prices are too high for most local buyers so far, especially given the recent weakness seen in Chinese offers amid lower futures HRC prices in China.
Formosa Ha Tinh has settled its offers for non-skin passed SAE1006 HRC and SS400 HRC to local customers to $590-610/mt CFR, while skin-passed SAE1006 HRC coils have been priced for August-September at $595-615/mt CFR. This means prices have increased by $10-15/mt over the past month. “Formosa’s new prices are higher than we thought, and 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.
“At the end the real contract prices will like always depend on negotiations, so the current level is just the indicative and position of the company which is not ready to support downward movement in China,” another source said.
Meanwhile, the latest offers for SAE1006 HRC from Chinese traders have been heard at $570/mt CFR, down by $5/mt week in week. Besides, bids from Vietnamese customers for ex-China materials have already been heard at $560/mt CFR. Offers for ex-China SS400 HRC have settled at around $535-540/mt CFR, versus offers at $545-550/mt CFR at the beginning of last week. Meanwhile, other foreign suppliers have been mainly staying out of the Vietnamese market, focusing on higher-priced destinations, with the indicative offers for ex-Japan SAE1006 HRC estimated at above $590/mt CFR Vietnam. Furthermore, indicative offers for ex-India materials have been heard at $595-605/mt CFR.
For now, the SteelOrbis reference price for import SAE1006 HRC in Vietnam is at $570-575/mt CFR, versus $575/mt CFR at the end of last week.
