Posted on 01 Mar 2024
The Vietnamese hot rolled coil market is slipping amid weak demand. Domestic mill Formosa Ha Tinh Steel (FHS) is heard to have lowered its latest monthly domestic HRC prices, which were announced last week.
FHS has discounted its sales prices by around $10/tonne to around $598/t for orders exceeding 20,000 tonnes, trading sources in Vietnam say. Orders for 10,000-20,000t are offered at $602/t. These are for non-skin passed SAE 1006 HRC, as well as for SS400 grade HRC, for April/May shipment on a cif Vietnam port basis. The mill had previously released its prices on 23 February at around $608-615/t cif Vietnam, depending on booking tonnages.
“The export market for HRC is not good, so they [Formosa] have to sell more in the domestic market. So they extended larger discounts for the big customers,” a Hanoi trader tells Kallanish.
The other Vietnamese HRC producer, Hoa Phat Dung Quat, is also expected to lower prices when it releases its new HRC allocations at the start of March. The slow export market for Vietnamese coated steel products has depressed demand for HRC, another trader observes. He guesses that Hoa Phat could lower its domestic HRC prices to around $580-585/t cfr Vietnam. Another trader is less pessimistic and thinks the mill will set its new prices at around $590/t cfr.
Source:Kallanish
