Posted on 11 Sep 2023
The Vietnamese hot rolled coil import market continues to see volatility in Chinese-origin offers, Kallanish notes. This is in tandem with fluctuating price movements on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE).
Offers for Q235/Q195 grade 3mm thickness HRC from China dipped slightly on Friday when the SHFE tanked. Suppliers were inviting bids at $537/tonne cfr, down from offers at around $539-540/t cfr on Thursday. The low-priced offers are from suppliers who are short-selling, a trader in Ho Chi Minh City said on Friday. There are even offers at $535/t cfr and customers are asking to book at $530/t cfr, a Hanoi mill source says.
The weak Chinese yuan is supporting these low price levels but the currency weakness is temporary, a Hanoi trader says. He sees offers at $537-538/t cfr Vietnam only for small quantities of around 2,000 tonnes. Offers were previously hiked to $550-553/t cfr Vietnam just the week before when there was optimism over easing in the Chinese domestic property sector.
Meanwhile, the SAE 1006 HRC market is also seeing some downward price correction. Chinese 2mm up thickness SAE 1006 HRC is being offered at $550/t fob China, a Chinese trader says. As freight has risen by $2/t, this is equivalent to $565/t cfr Vietnam, he adds.
"That is what traders think they can get from the mill if they go with a bid," a regional trader says. The lowest offer heard in the market on Thursday was $568/t cfr Vietnam.
Kallanish assessed SAE grade 2-2.7mm thickness HRC at $565-570/t cfr Vietnam, down $5 on-week.
Source:Kallanish
