Indian steel mills have continued actively offering hot rolled coil (HRC) to the Vietnamese market and have been the most successful in selling to this destination. About 100,000 mt of coils from different Indian mills have been sold at $472-477/mt CFR Vietnam this week, while the contract level was at $477-478/mt CFR last week, according to SteelOrbis’ information. If over the previous week most contracts for Indian coils were concluded by traders, these were position cargoes, while at the moment mills have been actively offering by themselves.
Ex-China prices to Vietnam have been heard at $480-490/mt CFR, but buyers have been reluctant to purchase.
Offers for small coils from Russia have been registered at $468/mt CFR Vietnam. According to the market sources’ estimations, price for big coils have to be close to $480/mt CFR.
The lower offer prices have pushed customers to become more cautious recently. “Over the last two weeks, a huge volume has been sold. Bids slipped to $470/mt CFR. We feel the downtrend will continue,” an Asian trader said. Over the past two weeks, more than 200,000 mt have been traded to Vietnam, according to SteelOrbis’ estimations.