Posted on 05 Jun 2024
Vietnam's commercial grade hot rolled coil market has slipped this week as certain Chinese suppliers are aggressively lowering prices. At the same time, Vietnamese HRC producer Hoa Phat Dung Quat recently lowered its domestic values for August shipments, Kallanish notes.
The market is seeing some offers for Q235 HRC from China at $530-535/tonne cfr Vietnam. This is $10/t lower from last Friday. “Very aggressive agents are inviting bids,” a Vietnamese trader says on this lower price level. Another notes he heard of a booking at $530-532/t cfr Vietnam but does not provide details.
Meanwhile, Hoa Phat dropped its list sales prices by around $9/t for its latest domestic HRC price allocations on 3 June. The company's quotes for non-skin passed SAE1006 or SS400 grade HRC have been set at the equivalent of around $568/t cfr southern Vietnam, excluding VAT.
Trading and rerolling market sources say that Hoa Phat’s latest HRC domestic prices are reasonable and in line with the current rerolling HRC market environment. Chinese-origin SAE 1006 2-2.5mm thickness HRC offers are prevailing at around $555-560/t cfr Vietnam and have been largely unchanged at these levels.
The price gap between Chinese SAE 1006 HRC and commercial HRC has widened considerably compared to $5-10/t in the past, a Vietnamese trader says. This has diminished Hoa Phat's competitiveness in the commercial HRC market. Vietnamese pipemakers will find Hoa Phat’s prices too high, he adds.
Another trader says Hoa Phat’s quotes are within norms but he thinks that some buyers could end up paying less. “I know Hoa Phat has discounts based on purchase volumes,” he observes. An order exceeding 20,000 tonnes may thus qualify for a discount of $10/t or more, he adds.
In VND terms, the company’s latest list price to southern Vietnam of VND 14,420/kg is VND 250/kg lower than last month’s official monthly domestic price. The mill’s prices to northern and central Vietnam are also set lower by VND 250/kg for this month at VND 14,390/kg.
Source:Kallanish
