Following a slight increase in local prices from Hoa Phat Group at the beginning of this week, on Monday, February 2, the other major local Vietnamese steel producer Formosa Ha Tinh Steel (FHS) has also revised its domestic offers, raising them by around $8-12/mt month on month two weeks earlier than usual.
More specifically, after the announcement at the beginning of the week by Hoa Phat Group of new local HRC offers at slightly higher levels, this week FHS has also increased its new prices for non-skin passed SAE1006 and SS400 HRC, by around $8/mt month on month, to $512/mt CIF for orders for a minimum of 20,000 mt, while offers for smaller orders of 2,000-5,000 mt and below have settled at around VND 13,615/kg, which translates to around $524/mt CIF, or up by $12/mt since mid-January.
“The increase in offers from Formosa has been mainly attributed to the disappearance of cheap non-VAT Chinese HRC offers, while the demand in the country has remained slow,” a market insider told SteelOrbis.
The current prices from Formosa for the local market for large volumes are around $6-8/mt lower than those from the other major Vietnamese producer Hoa Phat Group ($518-520/mt CIF).
Meanwhile, the most competitive offers for SAE1006/SS400 HRC have been voiced from Indian suppliers at $495-500/mt CFR for April shipment, compared to deal prices at $487-492/mt CFR a few weeks ago, though most bids are still voiced at $490-495/mt CFR levels. Besides, offers for ex-Japan and ex-South Korea HRC have been voiced at $500-505/mt CFR and $510-515/mt CFR, respectively.
The SteelOrbis reference price for import SAE1006 HRC has settled at $495-500/mt CFR, the same as at the beginning of this week.
