Posted on 02 Jun 2025
The Vietnamese hot rolled coil market continues to be sluggish, Kallanish notes. Weak domestic and export demand for coated steel is the main reason.
Offers for Chinese HRC are appearing this week. These offers are for users who produce coated coil for export, so existing preliminary anti-dumping duties on Chinese hot roll do not apply.
A Vietnamese trader hears that Chinese 2mm thickness and 1,219mm width HRC from Rizhao is offered at $480/tonne cfr, but the supplier is inviting bids at around $475/t cfr. Chinese Q195 3mm thickness and 1,250mm width HRC is offered at $445/t cfr.
Indonesian 3mm base thickness HRC is offered at $500/t cfr Vietnam. The supplier is shorting with this offer, a Jakarta trader says. As the mill’s offer is officially $490/t fob, a back-to-back offer would be $505/t cfr based on a 30,000t cargo. For smaller quantities, the offer would be $510/t cfr, he adds. However, trading sources say that the offer price for Indonesian HRC is not competitive against Japanese SAE 1006 2mm base HRC offered at $500/t cfr Vietnam.
Kallanish assesses SAE grade 2-2.7mm thickness HRC at $490-495/t cfr Vietnam, unchanged week-on-week.
Galvanizers in Vietnam are facing problems executing export contracts to Mexico. Mexico started cancelling the permits and registrations of 1,062 suppliers worldwide in early May after uncovering irregularities in steel import (see Kallanish passim). The Mexican government did not disclose the names of the suppliers but confirms that certain Vietnamese and Chinese companies evaded taxes through false registrations, triangulated with steel shipments and used forged import documents.
Coated flat steel exports from Vietnam to Mexico have stopped, trading sources say.
“Suddenly Mexico removed Vietnamese mills from the import list and Vietnamese coated steel producers with pending orders cannot ship their cargoes,” a Vietnamese trader says. “Many pending orders which are ready to be shipped are now on hold."
A global investigation, focused primarily on Asia, is underway to verify the legitimacy of importing companies and ensure compliance with trade regulations, including the traceability of material origin from steel mills.
The Mexican authorities recently initiated a review on existing anti-dumping duties of 6.4-10.84% on coated flat steel from Vietnam on 27 May (see Kallanish passim). Domestic producer Ternium México SA de CV made the request on 4 Feb 2025.
Source:Kallanish
