Posted on 06 Jun 2022
The Vietnamese hot rolled coil import market is subdued, apart from small-tonnage higher-priced bookings of Chinese SS400 grade HRC, Kallanish notes.
Certain small-volume buyers are bidding higher for 3-12mm thickness SS400 HRC from China. Recent small-tonnage contracts have been concluded at $760-765/tonne cfr northern Vietnam. “They need July shipments,” a Hanoi trader says of the buyers there. They are using the HRC mainly for construction purposes, he adds. The orders are for a few hundred tonnes each and around 2,000t in total, he estimates.
A Chinese trader notes that prices have risen from $740/t cfr levels during the week through 27 May. Vietnamese buyers started bidding higher in the past week on expectations that the Chinese HRC market will rebound after Covid lockdowns were lifted.
But in southern Vietnam, trading sources say that buyers are bidding lower. “Buyers are asking below $750/t cfr,” a Ho Chi Minh trader says. “I think there are not many buyers at this time because the Vietnamese market is not good,” another observes. Chinese offers for 2mm up thickness SAE 1006 HRC were last week heard at $770/t cfr Vietnam, with no takers.
Kallanish maintained SAE 2-2.7mm thickness HRC at $765-770/t cfr Vietnam.
Vietnam’s Hoa Phat Dung Quat Steel reduced its domestic HRC prices for July/August shipments on 1 June. Company sources said the mill reduced prices by the equivalent of $20/t to $780/t cif Ho Chi Minh City for SAE 1006 grade HRC, and to $775/t for SS400 (see Kallanish passim).
Hoa Phat’s prices to Hai Phong are around $4/t lower than to Ho Chi Minh City, meaning the Chinese-origin orders are still lower than Hoa Phat’s prices, Vietnamese trading sources say.
Source:Kallanish
