The downtrend has continued and even accelerated in the Vietnamese import HRC market over the past week as Indian mills have cut prices and traders have started to sell short, which is even more important. This means that they have a negative outlook for price development for the near future.
An Indian mill has sold 15,000 mt of SAE1006 HRC at $785/mt CFR Vietnam early this week, which is $5/mt below the previous deal for the same origin. After that mills have lowered offers further – to $780/mt CFR Vietnam, trying to push volumes overseas.
At the same time, starting from the middle of this week information about short position sales from traders for Indian coils have started to emerge. A deal for 10,000 mt at $770/mt CFR has been confirmed after a rumor about a trade at $775/mt CFR a day earlier. Also in addition, there have been talks about contracts at $760/mt CFR, but this could not be confirmed by the time of publication and it is still unclear whether it was SAE1006 HRC or SS400 in these cases. “Traders have taken short positions, I believe mills are offering $780/mt CFR,” an Indian producer said.
For SS400 HRC offers from traders have been heard at $765-770/mt CFR this week, also mostly for Indian coils.
Chinese HRC has been losing its competitiveness lately in comparison to India. Offers for SAE1006 HRC have been coming at $800/mt CFR mainly and the lowest price that could be found are only $795/mt CFR or a few dollars below. Chinese sellers have been focusing on the local market and keeping export prices relatively stable as after some declines in futures there have been some rebound again on Friday.
Market sources have been assessing the tradable level for ex-Japan and ex-Korea thin HRC at $810/mt CFR only, while no new offers have been reported with the lowest of them at $830/mt CFR earlier this month.
Market sources said that overall demand for imported coils in Vietnam has not been good and after customers have been focusing on local purchases mainly last week. This has been one of the reasons why Indian suppliers have been cutting prices, as they try to accelerate sales. Local HRC prices in India have fallen further by the end of this week.
The SteelOrbis reference price for imported SAE1006 HRC in Vietnam has fallen by $15-20/mt over the week to $770-780/mt CFR.
