Posted on 24 Aug 2020
The Vietnamese hot rolled coil import market resumed its uptrend last week after taking a pause the week before. Scarce availability of lower-priced material is driving the market up, Kallanish understands.
On Tuesday, a leading re-roller in southern Vietnam ordered 20,000 tonnes of Indian-origin 2mm and up thickness SAE 1006 HRC, for late-September/early-October shipment, at $510/tonne cfr. Another Indian mill is offering SAE 1006 HRC for November shipment at $525/t cfr, various traders report. “Indian HRC is now priced at $525/t cfr but I think that customers can buy at $510/t cfr maximum,” a trader in northern Vietnam says.
A regional trader however thinks that not all Indian HRC offers have reached this level. The Indian mill which sold at $510/t cfr would be will be willing to sell HRC for September/October shipment now at $510-515/t cfr Vietnam. He says the current strong demand in India is mostly due to pent-up domestic demand built up during the Covid-19 lockdown. This could wane in a month's time, he adds.
Two Japanese mills recently sold 2mm thickness SAE 1006 HRC at $515/t cfr Vietnam. Prices have gone up a lot, a Vietnamese trader said on Friday. The allocation from the two mills combined was only 60,000t, which was sold to a number of Vietnamese re-rollers. he observed.
While Vietnamese users resisted a sharp hike of $45/t in domestic prices during the week of 14 August, Formosa Ha Tinh did succeed in pushing up its prices. Noting that customers pay different prices according to factors such as order size, some traders report that the mill sold its skin-passed SAE 1006 HRC at around $510/t.
The mill has sold out its entire 350,000t HRC allocations for October shipment, almost all of which was sold domestically, a source close to the company says. "If customers do not buy from Formosa, where else can they get HRC?" a Vietnamese trader asks. While China booked large quantities in the past two months, Vietnam did not, he adds.
On Friday, Kallanish raised 2-2.7mm SAE1006 HRC to $510/t cfr Vietnam, up $12.5 on week.
Source:Platts
