Although the general mood in the import HRC segment has been far from positive this week and local demand for steel in Vietnam has remained weak, Vietnamese steel producer Formosa Ha Tinh (FHS) has announced its new local HRC prices for July and August shipments mostly at the same levels as in May or only $1-3/mt lower. The new prices are viewed by most local buyers as slightly overpriced given the recent ex-China HRC offers, but they also give hope for some recovery in import prices this month.
On June 10, FHS announced prices for non-skin passed SAE1006 and SS400 HRC in the local market at $507/mt CIF Haiphong for orders for a minimum of 20,000 mt, while for 10,000-20,000 mt cargoes the price has settled at $509/mt CIF. For smaller volumes of 5,000-10,000 mt and 2,000-5,000 mt of HRC, the buyers will have to pay $512/mt CIF and $515/mt CIF, respectively. The new prices are for July-August shipments have remained mainly stable over the past month, moving down only by $1-3/mt compared to May.
Also, the current prices from Formosa for the local market for large volumes are slightly lower than those announced by the other major Vietnamese producer Hoa Phat Group ($512-513/mt) early last week.
In the meantime, offers for ex-China Q235 2,000 mm HRC in Vietnam have been heard at $448-450/mt CFR for July shipment, down by $2-5/mt week on week. Besides, offers for ex-China Q195 HRC have been heard at $437-440/mt CFR. Offers for ex-China SAE1006 HRC have been assessed at $470-475/mt CFR, down by $5/mt week on week, though no interest has been seen due to antidumping duty (AD).
Besides, offers for ex-Indonesia SAE1006 HRC have been estimated at $500/mt CFR, down by $5/mt week on week, while offers from Japan have been voiced at $490/mt CFR. “We believe workable prices for import SAE1006 HRC should not be higher than $490/mt CFR,” a market insider told SteelOrbis.
Thus, SteelOrbis’ reference price for imported SAE1006 HRC has moved to $470-490/mt CFR, against $490-505/mt CFR last week.
