Posted on 09 Oct 2023
Vietnam’s Hoa Phat Dung Quat has managed to achieve good sales for its latest domestic hot rolled coil allocations, Kallanish notes. Hoa Phat’s competitive pricing and the weakness of the VND against the dollar have contributed to the mill’s good sales despite weak demand for HRC.
The company announced on 2 October its non-skin passed SAE1006 or SS400 grade HRC price for November delivery at the equivalent of around $570/tonne cfr Vietnam.
Hoa Phat’s HRC production for November delivery is “roughly” fully-booked, though it still has material for customers which want to increase their allocation, a source close to the company says. Buyers could have decided to book more strip from the domestic mill because Chinese suppliers were not in the market last week, he adds. Hoa Phat sold around 260,000 tonnes during this round, over 90% of its allocation.
Since the Chinese steel futures market was suspended for the Golden Week holiday, offers for Chinese HRC were the same as pre-holiday, a trader in Ho Chi Minh City says. He hears several bids for Chinese Q195 HRC at around $530/t cfr but the trader is unaware of bookings taking place. Chinese Q235 HRC is still heard offered at $538-540/t cfr Vietnam.
Chinese 2-2.5mm thickness SAE 1006 HRC was offered at $570/t cfr before the holiday. Kallanish assessed SAE grade 2-2.7mm thickness HRC at $565-570/t cfr Vietnam, unchanged on-week.
Source:Kallanish
