On December 1, Vietnamese HRC producer Hoa Phat Group announced its new prices for February delivery, decreasing them by around $15/mt month on month. The decision has been attributed to the slow demand in the country and is in line with market sources’ expectations, as import quotations have failed to recover in new offers even though Chinese futures have shown a slight recovery.
Specifically, Hoa Phat’s prices for non-skin passed SAE1006 and SS400 HRC have been announced at VND 13,290-13,320/kg ($504-505/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 $15/mt lower than last month.
However, according to sources, the steelmaker has also been offering lower prices for bigger orders at around $490-500/mt CIF, while discounts at around $485/mt CIF have been reported for orders above 20,000 mt.
In the meantime, the latest offers for ex-China Q235 HRC have been reported at $475-477/mt CFR for January shipment, mainly the same as last week, and down by around $10/mt CFR month on month. At the same time, indicative offers for ex-China SAE1006 HRC have settled at $495/mt CFR, the same as last week, while other foreign suppliers have been offering their materials in the range of $490-515/mt CFR.
Thus, the SteelOrbis reference price for import SAE1006 HRC in Vietnam has remained at $490-495/mt CFR.
At the same time, as of December 1, HRC futures at Shanghai Futures Exchange are standing at RMB 3,327/mt ($469/mt), increasing by RMB 32/mt ($4.5/mt) or 0.97 percent since November 24, while up 1.03 percent compared to the previous trading day, November 28.
$1 = RMB 7.0867