Following the unclear market situation prevailing in Vietnam’s HRC import market during recent weeks, more clarity has emerged with new deals reported for ex-China materials at the end of last week.
More specifically, according to market insiders, Vietnamese re-rollers bought around 70,000-90,000 mt in total of ex-China SAE1006 HRC at $660/mt CFR and slightly above for April shipment at the end of last week. “We heard Maanshan Steel sold its HRC at 650-655/mt FOB to Vietnam last week, along with some other suppliers,” a market insider said. “We also heard that around 90,000 mt in total were booked in Vietnam last week at $660/mt CFR, but today big Chinese mills have not actually released new offers so far, except for Shagang Steel at $665/mt FOB for SS400 HRC,” another trader told SteelOrbis.
New offers for ex-China SAE1006 HRC have been heard at $660-675/mt CFR, compared to $635-655/mt CFR heard from traders and small mills, versus $675-680/mt CFR from big mills last week. “All offers less $660/mt CFR were no more than speculations in the market,” a Chinese trader said.
Meanwhile, more deals have also been reported in the SS400 HRC segment. In particular, according to market insiders at least 50,000 mt of ex-China Q195 and SS400 HRC are reported to have been sold by Chinese traders in Vietnam at $610-615/mt CFR, versus deal prices at $615-616/mt CFR at the beginning of last week, with new offers heard at $610-620/mt CFR this week.
As for other foreign HRC suppliers, offers for ex-Japan SAE1006 HRC have remained unchanged over the past week, standing at $700/mt CFR. Indicative offers for ex-India HRC have settled at $700/mt CFR and above, the same as last week.
“We expect Formosa to announce new offers for domestic market this week at around $680-685/mt CFR, given that the producer’s export HRC offers to ASEAN have been voiced at $685-690/mt FOB, while at around $720/mt FOB to Europe,” a market insider said.
The SteelOrbis reference price for import SAE1006 HRC in Vietnam has moved to $660-670/mt CFR, compared to $635-655/mt CFR last week, given numerous deals done for ex-China materials at the abovementioned levels.
