Posted on 23 Jul 2018
Vietnam’s hot rolled coil import market remained weak last week, Kallanish notes. Certain suppliers were enticing buyers with prices below the general offered levels of $600-610/tonne cfr.
Two deals were concluded last week at under $600/t cfr. Early last week a trader sold 10,000t of re-rolling grade Chinese 2-2.5mm thickness SAE 1006 HRC to a Vietnamese re-roller at $595/t cfr. This Chinese mill has since raised its offer to $600/t cfr because it has sold out its export allocation, Vietnamese trading sources said.
Last Thursday, another trader was offering re-rolling SAE 1006 HRC from another Chinese mill at $597/t cfr. On Friday, trading sources in Vietnam reported that a re-roller booked 10,000t at $595/t cfr.
There was also market chatter that an Indian mill sold 5,000t of 2-2.7mm SAE 1006 HRC at $595/t cfr, $5/t lower than its confirmed deal the previous week. But traders are unsure if this took place as Indian HRC offers are prevailing at around $605/t cfr.
All other Chinese offers for re-rolling grade SAE 1006 are prevailing at $600-608/t cfr, but these low-priced deals have caused buyers to bid at $595-598/t cfr and even as low as $590/t cfr.
Meanwhile, Vietnamese producer Formosa Ha Tinh lowered its prices for September shipments. Its new offer prices are equivalent to $595/t cfr Ho Chi Minh Port for SS400 HRC, $605/t cfr for SAE1006 re-rolling grade HRC and $600/t for pipemaking HRC. The latest prices are $15/t lower than its offers last month. The mill will charge $5/t extra for skin passed coil. The mill has allocated around 270,000t for domestic sales and 50,000t for exports.
“The prices are not competitive at this time,” an importer says. He referred to a booking of Chinese SAE 1006 2.5mm base pipemaking at $592/t cfr earlier in the week and believed that Chinese pipemaking HRC was still available at $595/t cfr.
The Kallanish weekly assessment for SAE 1006 grade 2-2.7mm thick HRC imports into Vietnam last Friday narrowed to $595-600/t cfr from the previous week's $595-602/t cfr.
