Vietnam’s HRC import market has remained weak this week, even as some improvement emerged from China following the rebound in HRC futures, which pushed up ex-China coil prices in Vietnam. However, offers for re-rolling grade material from most foreign suppliers have stayed largely stable or even shown a slight downward bias as overseas sellers continue to struggle to attract Vietnamese buyers amid persistently weak demand.
Import offers for ex-China Q235 2,000 mm HRC in Vietnam have been voiced at $475-478/mt CFR, compared to $475/mt CFR last week. Besides, indicative offers for ex-China SAE1006 HRC have been estimated at $495-500/mt CFR. This slight recovery has been mainly attributed to higher HRC futures prices in China, which by November 26 have reached RMB 3,305/mt ($465/mt), increasing by RMB 27/mt ($3.8/mt) since November 19, while decreasing by 0.03 percent compared to the previous trading day, November 25.
Offers for SAE1006 HRC from most foreign suppliers have remained relatively stable over the past week or showing even a slight downward bias as most suppliers have been struggling to attract Vietnamese buyers’ attention due to slow demand. In particular, offers for SAE1006 HRC from one of the Indian steelmakers have been voiced at around $485-488/mt CFR compared to $495-500/mt CFR last week.
Offers for ex-Indonesia 3 mm SAE1006/SS400 HRC have been heard at $493-502/mt CFR, depending on the order size, mainly the same as last week. Besides, offers for ex-Japan SAE1006 HRC have remained at $510-515/mt CFR for January shipment, while suppliers from South Korea have been offering their coils at around $500-505/mt CFR for January shipment, down by $10/mt week on week.
Thus, the SteelOrbis reference price for import SAE1006 HRC has moved to $490-495/mt CFR, down by $1-5/mt week on week and, despite some recovery in China, more offers at lower levels have been voiced from other suppliers due to slow demand in the country.
