Vietnamese steel producer Hoa Phat Group has announced its new hot rolled coil offers for domestic customers, decreasing them on dollar basis by around $11/mt month on month. However, given the slight rebound in HRC futures prices in China this week, Chinese traders have decided to increase their export offers slightly to Vietnamese buyers as well, though the sustainability of a further price recovery is still questionable.
Specifically, this week, Hoa Phat’s prices for non-skin passed SAE1006 and SS400 mainly for June shipment have been announced at VND 13,340-13,370/kg ($525-526/mt), where the lower end of the range corresponds to the prices in northern and central Vietnam, while the higher price is found in the south. This means that the current prices have decreased by VND 200/kg, but are around $11/mt lower than last month.
The price reduction was expected by most Vietnamese customers, since during November ex-China offers for both SAE1006 HRC and Q235/SS400 HRC decreased by around $15-20/mt. However, the latest offers for ex-China Q235/SS400 HRC have been reported at $502-505/mt CFR levels, versus the deal prices at $495-498/mt CFR for around 10,000 mt reported a few days ago. This rebound is mainly explained by the recovery of HRC futures prices in China, which have rebounded by RMB 73/mt ($10.1/mt) since November 26, and have increased by 1.14 percent compared to the previous trading day, December 2.
Import offers for SAE1006 HRC, however, have remained rare in Vietnam with the SteelOrbis reference price moving to $515/mt CFR, against $510-515/mt CFR last week, based on ex-China indicative offers, while no deals have been reported so far.
