The Russian mills have increased their HRC offers for Vietnam by around $5/t w-o-w, SteelMint learned from reliable channels in Vietnam. After the hike, the HRC (SAE1006) offers from Russia stand at $525/t CFR Vietnam, and continue to remain competitive against offers from major exporting nations. However, other major exporting nations have kept their offers unchanged today.
Meanwhile buying activity continues to remain too slow at the end-users end due to following reasons:
- Higher offers from China- The Chinese mills have been offering at a $530-535/t CFR basis to Vietnamese buyers for the last couple of weeks. The mills have been enjoying better domestic margins and also an increase in future gains compelled them to offer at the higher-end in the overseas markets.
- Absence of Indian origin cargoes- Indian mills continue to focus in the domestic market on improved demand and pickup in auto sales. The country is not offering much to the Vietnam market. Thus the absence of cost-effective cargoes from India resulted in low buying. Offers from India are heard around $535-540/t CFR levels.
- Increased domestic availability- Market sources shared with SteelMint that, Hao Phat, has announced to allocate 140,000 t of HRC pipe-making grade for sale in the domestic market in Nov at around $515/t CIF basis. This further increases the domestic availability of material and reduce reliance on imported HRC.
Outlook- Vietnamese buyers generally prefer Indian and Chinese origin HRC over others, however, the offers from these two nations have come at par with the domestic prices at $535-540/t CIF basis. This has made the Vietnamese importers stay on the sidelines, while they continue to source the materials domestically.
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