Major Vietnamese mill Formosa Ha Tinh Steel (FHS) has announced its new HRC prices for August-September delivery, with the price drop of $41/mt increasing compared to the decrease of $22/mt announced a month earlier. The latest prices are slightly lower than expected by market sources and signal that the downward market movement is still continuing, while the weakness of demand is expected to persist.
FHS’s new prices for non-skin passed SAE1006 and SS400 HRC have settled at VND 14,230-14,490/kg ($538-548/mt) CIF. As usual, the lower end of the range corresponds to orders above 20,000 mt, while the higher end is for lots of less than 2,000 mt. For 5,000-10,000 mt volumes, the price is $544/mt CIF and for 10,000-15,000 mt orders buyers will have to pay $542/mt CIF. On month-on-month basis, prices have lost VND 1,050/kg or $40/mt, but, considering the exchange rate fluctuations, the decrease is $41/mt compared to the level seen in dollars in early June.
In comparison to Hoa Phat’s prices announced on July 1 ($549-550/mt CIF), the new prices from FHS are $2-11/mt lower, and most market participants agree that Hoa Phat was giving some additional discounts last week. “I heard that Hoa Phat has almost completed bookings for August. And while last month their total sales [both local and export] were just slightly over 500,000 mt, this month they may reach 700,000 mt,” a Vietnam-based source said, commenting on some improvement in demand after such a sharp price drop.
In the import market in Vietnam, after deals for Indian and Indonesian coils at $535-543/mt CFR (for a mix of SS400 and SAE with the higher end of the price range corresponding to HRC with 2 mm thickness), the workable levels have been corrected down further. Some traders have already voiced $530/mt CFR for SAE1006 HRC for Vietnam, but no new deals have been reported so far. “Bids made to Indian mills dropped sharply after the local mills [in Vietnam] cut prices. The latest bids were at $517-518/mt CFR, but with no bookings by Indian mills,” an Indian trading source said.
