Vietnam:Formosa Increases HRC Offer for March deliveries

Vietnam based mill Formosa having the crude steel making capacity of 3.5 MnT pa has announced fresh offers of HRC for March deliveries.

Presently the company has quoted offers which are hovering at USD 573/MT CFR .In previous month the offers were heard at USD 564/MT CFR basis.

The steel maker has planned to raise its capacity to 7 MnT pa with start up of the two Blast furnaces.

Market sources also reported that Japanese and Korean offers mills are offering HRC at USD 620-630/MT CFR basis. Meanwhile Chinese mills are offering HRC at USD 580-590/MT CFR Vietnam.

Also Indian origin mill is offering HRC export offers at USD 605/MT CFR Vietnam.

However buyers in Vietnam are trying to replenish the stock ahead of Tet holidays in Vietnam and new year holidays in China. Since buyers have made speculation that prices may increase post holidays.

Chinese HRC export offers increase over anticipation of positive demand- Chinese HRC export offers reported increase for march deliveries amid anticipation of optimistic demand in domestic market.This week Chinese mills have raised HRC export offers by USD 10/MT W-o-W basis.

Currently HRC commercial grade ASTM A36 export offers are prevailing in the range of USD 580-590/MT,FoB China.However buyers are bidding on lower side.Payment are made on letter of credit basis for 1,000-10,000 MT.

Prices of HRC in domestic market are hovering in the range of RMB 4,070-4,090/MT (Eastern China) and RMB 3,930-3,950/MT (Northern China) including VAT & other taxes.

Also,Chinese new year holiday is scheduled from 15th Feb and steel mills will remain closed for one week which may lead to some fluctuations in HRC export offers in near term.

CIS origin HRC Export offers rose marginally over less supply-CIS-nations have raised HRC export offers owing to lesser material availability among steel mills in Russia and Turkey.

Currently HRC export offers from CIS nations are prevailing in the range of USD 575-595/MT,FoB Black Sea.Previously the offers were heard around USD 570-595/MT FoB basis.

Russian origin mill Metinvest have raised the HRC export offers by USD 5-10/MT and are offering at USD 580/MT FoB Black Sea.

Japanese HRC export offers remain largely stable-Japanese mills have kept the HRC export offers stable on tight supply prevailing in domestic market.Steel mills in Japan have lower export allocations and are highly focused in domestic market amid strong demand from construction and automobile sector.

However no fresh offers from South Korean mills this week.

Global Flat Steel Export Offers-Week 4 2018

Source SteelMint Research
*including VAT