The rising trend of hot rolled coil (HRC) import prices in Vietnam has continued unabated with ex-China HRC booked this week, SteelOrbis has learned from trade circles. However, despite new import deals, most market insiders have continued to claim insufficient domestic steel demand, which has also resulted in more ex-Vietnam sales to overseas buyers.
According to sources, while offers for ex-China SAE1006 HRC have risen to $575-580/mt CFR, up by $5/mt week on week, a deal for around 30,000 mt of HRC from a first-tier Chinese mill has been signed at $578/mt CFR for January shipment this week. Besides, some ex-China offers from mills have already been heard at as high as $585-600/mt CFR.
Meanwhile, several deals for ex-China Q195 HRC have been heard at $558/mt CFR, up by around $15/mt on average since the beginning of last week, while most ex-China Q195 offers have been estimated at $560/mt CFR. At the same time, offers for SS400 and Q235 HRC have been voiced at $565-572/mt CFR, depending on the supplier, though a few small batches are reported to have been sold in Vietnam at $562-565/mt CFR this week, versus deal prices at $550-555/mt CFR last week.
Other suppliers, however, have remained almost inactive in Vietnam, with only indicative offers heard for ex-Japan HRC at around $590-600/mt CFR, the same as last week. Thus, the SteelOrbis reference price for imported SAE1006 HRC in Vietnam has settled at $578-580/mt CFR, based on ex-China HRC quotes only.
In the meantime, according to sources, given no visible signs of a significant domestic demand recovery in Vietnam, more export sales have been reported from Vietnam, this time to Europe and South America. In particular, more than 50,000 mt of ex-Vietnam HRC in total have been sold to Europe and South America at around $590/mt FOB over the past two weeks.
