Posted on 09 Jan 2023
Vietnamese producer Formosa Ha Tinh Steel (FHS) has hiked its latest monthly domestic hot rolled coil prices by 5%. The mill’s new prices are considered fair amid the current firm market.
The mill announced on 8 January that the March-shipment price for non-skin-passed SAE 1006 HRC would be set at the equivalent of $635/tonne cfr Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC), company sources tell Kallanish. The mill’s prices for SS400/pipe-making grades HRC are the same as that for the rerolling grade. Prices on a cfr Hanoi basis are $5/t lower. FHS is expected to offer around 330,000-350,000t, which is its usual monthly HRC allocations, local trading sources say
"Everyone thinks that prices will be up after the lunar new year," a Ho Chi Minh trader says Saturday. "The new prices are reasonable, a Hanoi trader says. “Rerollers can accept them,” he says. But he thinks that local pipemakers will delay buying and wait for Vietnam's other strip producer, Hoa Phat Group, to announce its new prices. He thinks Hoa Phat will fix its new prices at around $610-620/t cfr.
There is market chatter that Hoa Phat will resume operations at two of its blast furnaces in early March at its Dung Quat plant in Quang Ngai Province. "Demand is recovering," the trader says. Hoa Phat Dung Quat closed two of its blast furnaces in November and another furnace in December, leaving only one furnace running because of the weak market then.
Chinese HRC prices are rising and current SAE 1006 offers are prevailing at $625/t cfr Vietnam (see separate HRC report).
Source:Kallanish
