Import HRC prices in the Vietnamese market have continued to fall this week, but trading has been limited as buyers have also cut their bids. A number of customers prefer local sourcing in small volumes and with closer lead times, resulting in increased trading of domestic material.
The latest offers from traders for Indian and Indonesian SS400 and SAE1006 3 mm HRC were at $525/mt CFR in the middle of the week and the lowest was at $523/mt CFR by Friday. But buyers have been insisting on $515-517/mt CFR, which is too low even for traders offering in short positions and thinking that the market will remain bearish. The latest offer and small-volume HRC deal was done at $530/mt CFR by the major Indonesian mill. “Indian mills will resist going below $500/mt FOB [translates to $525-530/mt CFR for large volumes]. A deal for 20,000 mt of Indian coils was done to the UAE at above $530/mt FOB,” an Indian trader said.
The SteelOrbis reference price for SAE1006 has settled at $520-530/mt CFR, falling by $14/mt on average over the past week, where the lower end represents buyers’ highest price idea and the higher end represents the latest offers.
At the same time, after the recent cut in local prices announced by FHS this week, local activity has been better. “Vietnamese buyers prefer to buy from Hoa Phat or FHS, and some additional smaller volumes are coming from India and Indonesia. There is almost no demand for Chinese materials and thin coils [from China] priced high for buyers,” a local source said. The latest sales from Vietnamese mills in the local market have been reported at $538-545/mt CIF (and additional discounts applied up to $3-5/mt) depending on the volume and buyer. According to market sources, Hoa Phat has managed to sell over 500,000 mt locally for August shipment. In addition, around 85,000 mt of HRC have been traded to Europe as Hoa Phat Dung Quat has zero AD duty in Europe compared to 12 percent duty for Formosa.
