The situation in Vietnam’s import HRC market has not improved over the past week with the focus being on negotiations with local sellers. Most bids for import coils have been at far below $900/mt CFR, too low for a number of sellers who have preferred other Asian markets.
Offers from traders for ex-India HRC have been at $890/mt CFR this week, almost in line with last week, but this price level has been considered as “not attractive” for most mills in India. “This is the minimum price the seller can give, but I doubt that someone will pay it here,” a local trader said, adding that most bids for relatively high-volume cargoes would still be at $860/mt CFR at the highest.
No fresh offers for ex-Russia HRC have been reported by the end of this week to Vietnam. A number of sources believe that this is due to active sales from a Russian producer to Bangladesh for 70,000 mt in total, according to the latest information, at $930/mt CFR on average.
Other suppliers, Japanese or Taiwanese, have also been focused on other markets. In particular, a Japanese producer has this week managed to sell at $1,000/mt CFR thin coils not above 2 mm also to Bangladesh. Taiwanese producers have seen local prices at $980-1,000/mt ex-works, and, though demand has been scarce, sales to the export market at much lower prices have not been reasonable for them.
The reference price for imported SAE1006 HRC in Vietnam is stable on average from last week at $880-890/mt CFR.
