Posted on 15 Aug 2022
Vietnam’s import buying interest for hot rolled coil continues to be sluggish. Most market participants are awaiting the release of new domestic strip allocations from local mill Formosa Ha Tinh, Kallanish notes. At the same time, high inventories have forced re-rollers to slow offtake of outstanding orders from the mill.
A southern Vietnam re-roller ordered a 5,000-tonne cargo of 2mm thickness SAE 1006 HRC from a tier-1 Japanese mill at $610/tonne cfr in the past two weeks. Japanese SAE HRC offers have since risen to $630/t cfr, trading sources say.
South Korean SAE 1006 HRC for October shipment is currently offered at $615/t cfr Vietnam. Last week, another South Korean mill's offer was heard at $570/t fob for 2mm basis. "I heard that the mill wants to sell high-grade HRC to Vietnam instead of SAE/SS400 grades," a Hanoi trader says.
Re-rollers continue to grapple with higher re-rolling HRC inventories. “Re-rollers have asked Formosa to delay the shipments for their HRC orders because CRC consumption is too slow,” a second Vietnamese trader says. Formosa is the re-rollers’ main supplier and their sales are performing worse than those of pipemakers at present, the first trader notes.
Chinese offers for SS400 grade HRC are prevailing at $610-615/t cfr Ho Chi Minh City. This is higher than the previous week’s $600-610/t cfr. Chinese SAE 1006 HRC is currently offered at $630/t cfr Vietnam. "It seems China is the highest-priced source now," a Chinese trader notes.
Kallanish assessed SAE 2-2.7mm thickness HRC at $605-610/t cfr Vietnam, up $2.5/t on-week.
Source:Kallanish
