Posted on 16 Dec 2019
The Vietnamese hot rolled coil market has surged as bullish suppliers continued to hike offers, Kallanish notes. Last Friday home producer Formosa Ha Tinh also announced a domestic price hike.
On Thursday, around 40,000 tonnes of SAE 1006 2mm base thickness HRC from Taiwan was booked for February shipment at $480/tonne cfr Vietnam. Two mills in Taiwan recently sold at $455-460/t fob to Vietnam, a Taiwanese trader says.
One of the two Taiwanese mills was offering another 5,000t at $490/t cfr to a Vietnamese re-roller on Friday, a Vietnamese trader says. The mill managed to sell this same tonnage at the same price to another re-roller. Vietnamese re-rollers are restocking ahead of an anticipated demand pick-up post- Lunar New Year in February, he adds.
On Tuesday, a trader’s 10,000t position cargo of 2mm and up thickness Indian HRC transacted at $478/t cfr Vietnam.
Offers for SAE 1006 HRC have jumped, Vietnamese trading sources say. 2mm thickness HRC from Japan is now priced at $490/t cfr, from Korea at $485/t cfr and from India also at $485/t cfr. A Chinese mill is also offering 2-2.5mm HRC at $485/t cfr.
Kallanish raised its 2-2.7mm SAE1006 HRC assessment on Friday to $478-482/t cfr Vietnam, up $17.5 on week.
Meanwhile, domestic mill Formosa Ha Tinh raised its new HRC list prices by $15/t for February shipments.
On Friday, the mill announced it will raise its base SAE1006 HRC price to $485/t cif Vietnam, up from last month's $470/t cif. The mill’s price for SS400 and for pipe-making grades was at $475/t. Hot rolled band without skin pass is priced at $480/t.
For the mill's February shipments of wire rod, a $5/t discount has made the latest price hike an effective $5/t instead of the nominal $10/t. Offers for the mill's general cold work quality wire rod would be priced $515/t cif, for mesh quality grade at $505/t cif, and for mesh quality 2 grade at $492/t cif.
All offers are valid until 17 December and are calculated based on the dollar/dong exchange rate of 1:23,170.
