On January 5, Vietnamese HRC producer Hoa Phat Group announced its new prices for February and March delivery, increasing them by around $6/mt month on month. The decision has been mainly attributed to the disappearance of cheap non-VAT Chinese HRC offers, while the demand in the country has remained slow and is in line with market sources’ expectations.
Specifically, Hoa Phat’s prices for non-skin passed SAE1006 and SS400 HRC have been announced at VND 13,390-13,420/kg ($510-511/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 $6/mt lower than last month.
However, according to sources, the steelmaker has also been offering lower prices for bigger orders at around $500/mt CIF and below.
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 latest offers for ex-China Q235 HRC reported at $485-490/mt CFR for February shipment, compared to $490/mt CFR last week.
At the same time, indicative offers for ex-China SAE1006 HRC have settled at $495-500/mt CFR, the same as last week, while other foreign suppliers have been offering their materials in the range of $483-510/mt CFR. Offers for ex-India HRC have been voiced at $483/mt CFR for big orders of around 30,000 mt, compared to deal prices at $477-482/mt CFR last week, while offers for smaller volumes have been reported at around $490/mt CFR.
Thus, the SteelOrbis reference price for import SAE1006 HRC in Vietnam has moved to $483-490/mt CFR, compared to $477-490/mt CFR last week, with the lower end of the range corresponding to ex-India HRC offers.
As of January 5, HRC futures at Shanghai Futures Exchange are standing at RMB 3,248/mt ($462/mt), decreasing by RMB 39/mt ($6.2/mt) or 1.2 percent since December 29, while down 0.79 percent compared to the previous trading day, December 31.