Posted on 11 Mar 2024
Vietnam’s hot rolled coil import market remains depressed amid a drop in Chinese prices, Kallanish notes.
Offers for 2mm and up thickness SAE 1006 HRC from China’s Tier I mills are currently at $585/tonne cfr Vietnam. However, there are also lower-priced offers heard at $575/t cfr from the lower-tier mills. Offers are for new production HRC and from many mills, a trader in Ho Chi Minh City said on Friday. “Maybe the suppliers are short selling,” he says. Some traders counter, however, that they have not seen such offers.
While no deals are heard taking place for SAE 1006 HRC, there are trades taking place for April shipments of commercial grade HRC from China. Deals for Chinese 3mm base thickness Q195 grade HRC transacted at $528-530/t cfr and for 3-12mm thickness Q235 grade HRC at $539-540/t cfr.
Sales of HRC are slowing down and the downstream industry is facing a difficult export market, a trader notes. He blames this on the depressed global HRC market and the weakness in China’s steel market. “Demand is extremely bad in Vietnam. Most of the rerollers here only have orders for the first half of May, although it is nearly the middle of March,” he says. Orderbooks are typically full for 2.5-3 months ahead.
Kallanish assessed SAE grade 2-2.7mm thickness HRC at $575-580/t cfr Vietnam, unchanged on-week.
Source:Kallanish
