The uptrend in the Vietnamese HRC market has continued and prices have reached $600/mt CFR in fresh deals. Tight supply is still the major driver of the prices, while demand has been good, providing support to prices.
The major Chinese producer Baosteel has sold 20,000 mt of SAE 1006 (all coils were 2 mm) at $602-603/mt CFR Vietnam early this week. Some market sources said that as the full cargo included 2 mm coils, there was extra of at least $3/mt in this deal. Another large steel mill from China has also sold SAE1006 HRC to Vietnam at $600/mt CFR this week. Though some sources said that traders could still offer at $600/mt CFR, most offers from mills have increased to $610-630/mt CFR on Thursday. “Seems China is still the most competitive,” an Asian trader said.
Official offers from Japan have been reported at $640/mt CFR, but a number of sources reported about negotiations at $615-620/mt CFR. Though the deal has not been confirmed as signed, this price level has been assessed as “reasonable” in the current market conditions by market sources. Taiwanese suppliers have also increased offers to $630-640/mt CFR Vietnam this week.
One of S. Korean exporters has been announcing an offer price at $620/mt FOB, which is equivalent to $640-647/mt Southeast Asia. Moreover, there has been a rumor in the market that POSCO has started to postpone January shipments due to a fire at a plant, reported this week, but this has not been confirmed by the time of publication.
Nominal prices and rare offers for Indian coils to Vietnam have been at $615-620/mt CFR, but the available volume has been still very limited.
The limited supply volume of HRC has been seen also in the domestic market in Vietnam. “Steel is like gold now, there is no allocation to buy,” a trader said.
“Most of Vietnamese mills have full order books for Feb/Mar shipment of their finished products. The mills are receiving many inquiries from the EU, Mexico and the US, but cannot do anything [as they sold out],” he added.
The SteelOrbis reference price for imported SAE1006 HRC in Vietnam has been increased to $600/mt CFR, up by $6-10/mt from early this week and by $17.5/mt on average from last week.