Posted on 14 Dec 2020
The Vietnamese import market for hot rolled coil saw offers jump up on Friday, Kallanish understands. Importers were largely restrained from paying up because they are waiting for the release of new monthly HRC allocations by domestic mill, Formosa Ha Tinh.
A Chinese mill announced Friday that it was hiking 2.5mm thickness SAE 1006 HRC for end-February shipment to $690/tonne cfr Ho Chi Minh port. It was offering material at around $660/t cfr during the week and sold material for January shipment at $635/t cfr on 3 December.
Likewise, other mills have also increased their offers. A Chinese Tier 1 mill’s offer for 2mm SAE 1006 HRC was hiked by $25/t on Friday to $700/t cfr. It sold a 10,000t parcel at $643/tonne cfr Ho Chi Minh around 7 December. A Russian mill was also heard offering 2mm and up SAE 1006 HRC, mostly for pipe-making, at $700/t cfr. Japanese 2mm SAE 1006 HRC offers are now tagged at $720/t cfr up from $700/t cfr. Japanese material was booked at $635/t cfr on 2 December.
Chinese and Vietnamese trading sources describe the sky-rocketing market as "crazy." Some buyers are bidding higher now for Chinese HRC at $555-560/t cfr but the Chinese mills are not giving in, a Vietnamese trader says on Friday.
The Vietnamese importers were noticeably slow to book imports during the week. They are waiting for Formosa’s release of 380,000t of HRC allocations for end-February/early-March shipment. Export offers to Vietnam are curtailed by overseas supply heading for better-paying markets such as Europe.
On Friday, Kallanish assessed 2-2.7mm SAE1006 HRC at $650-660/t cfr Vietnam, $27.5 higher on-week.
Meanwhile, Vietnamese rerollers are passing on their higher production costs to downstream customers. Hoa Sen has announced a series of price increases for its hot-dipped galvanized, galvalume and respective pre-painted products this month. It plans to hike prices by the equivalent of $13-26/t effective 12 December followed by $8-24/t from 15 December, $8-22/t from 17 December and also a further $8-22/t from 26 December.
Source:Kallanish
