The Vietnamese market demand for imported hot rolled coils (HRC) is subdued at present with buyers preferring competitively-priced domestic material. It is to be noted that, towards the middle of the previous week, domestic steel manufacturers had increased their monthly HRC prices by $90-95/tonne (t).
Prices of domestic producers for April deliveries:
- Formosa Ha Tinh is offering HRC (SAE1006, skinpass) at around $845/t on CIF basis.
- Hoa Phat’s offers range between $828-832/t on CIF basis.
No firm offers from major exporting countries:
There were no firm offers heard from major steel mills in China or India today. The mills in both countries held back offers on limited allocations. On one hand, Chinese mills are facing some more stringent production curbs in key hub of Hebei, while on the other, the Indian mills are decently booked till March shipments. Meanwhile, major steel mills in India might come up with firm offers in the first week of March.
Indicative offers heard for imported HRCs this week:
a) Chinese mills’ indications were at around $870/t CFR.
b) Indications from India were heard around $890-900/t CFR.
Buyers focus primarily on domestic products:
With the recent prices announced for April shipments, buyers in Vietnam are focused on enquiring about HRCs in the domestic market, and are less interested in imported ones. Another reason for higher domestic preference is the price competitiveness against those of exporting countries.
Moreover, steel demand in Vietnam has been slow to recover after the lifting of lockdowns in early Nov’21. This led to increase in export volumes of steel from Vietnam. Hoa Phat, having an annual HRC production capacity of 300,000 t per annum, sold around 228,000 t of HRCs in Jan’21, as per a company report.
.jpg)
Leave a Reply