This week, Vietnam’s leading HRC producer, Hoa Phat Group, has announced its new prices for May delivery, increasing them sharply by around $31-32/mt month on month. The decision to increase prices was largely due to foreign suppliers’ attempts to significantly raise prices, even though demand in the Vietnamese market has remained extremely weak.
Specifically, Hoa Phat’s prices for non-skin passed SAE1006 and SS400 HRC have been announced at VND 14,390-14,420/kg ($546-548/mt) CIF, where the lower end of the range corresponds to prices in northern and central Vietnam, while the higher price is found in the south. Thus, the current price is around $31-32/mt higher than last month.
However, according to sources, local customers expect discounts of $2-12/mt depending on the order size.
In the meantime, given the imposition of export licenses in China, traders who had earlier offered their non-VAT material at cheaper prices have left the Vietnamese market, with the indicative offers for ex-China Q235 HRC reported at around $510/mt CFR for May shipment, while offers for Q195 have settled at $487-490/mt CFR.
At the same time, offers for ex-India SAE1006/SS400 HRC have been voiced at $535-540/mt CFR, the same as last week, but compared to $495/mt CFR reported in early March. Offers for ex-Indonesia SAE1006 HRC have been voiced at around $565/mt CFR for June and July shipments, up by $5/mt on the lower end of the range week on week, while offers for ex-Japan coils have been estimated at $550/mt CFR, up by $10/mt since last week.
Thus, the SteelOrbis reference price for import SAE1006 HRC in Vietnam has settled at $535-540/mt CFR, versus $530-540/mt CFR last week.