On December 15, major Vietnamese steel producer Formosa Ha Tinh Steel has announced its new local HRC prices for February deliveries with prices up $55/mt from the November levels. This increase has fully offset the drop last month and has been supported by the rapid increase in ex-China prices over past weeks, the good export order books of the mills, and some gradual increase in demand in Vietnam, SteelOrbis has learned from the market.
Formosa Ha Tinh’s prices for non-skin passed SAE1006 HRC to local customers have settled at $605/mt CFR, up by $55/mt from the previous month. Skin-passed SAE1006 coils have been priced for February at $610/mt CFR. A few factors are behind the sharp hike, which was bigger than the drop of $43-45/mt in November. First of all, the decrease in competition between suppliers and the healthier supply-demand balance have supported prices. A number of exporters like Japan, Taiwan and South Korea have remained out of the market, while China has been increasing prices very rapidly. In addition, “domestic demand is better than last month when it was very bad,” a source said.
Also, strong support for local HRC price rises in Vietnam has come from good order books as Formosa Ha Tinh has managed to sell up to 200,000 mt abroad in past weeks, with the latest deal reported at $570/mt FOB early this week.
Offers for SAE1006 HRC from China have been voiced at $610-620/mt CFR this week, while some Indian mills have been asking for $610-640/mt CFR for the same grade, while in the middle of November import HRC prices have been hovering in the range of $550-565/mt CFR.
The SteelOrbis reference price for imported SAE1006 HRC has settled at $600-610/mt CFR, with the lower end of the range up $10/mt from the level reported earlier this week. The week-on-week increase has reached $20-30/mt.
