Posted on 20 May 2024
Chinese exporters hiked offers for commercial grade hot rolled coil in Vietnam at the end of last week, Kallanish notes. This is in line with the Shanghai Futures Exchange’s upward spiral.
Offers for commercial quality 3-12mm Q235B grade HRC for shipment by 10 July are prevailing at $540/tonne cfr Vietnam and for Q195 grade also at $540/t cfr. An offer for end-June shipment of Q195 grade is seen at $538/t cfr.
Several bookings for Q235 grade HRC were concluded at $529-530/t cfr on 15 May, trading sources say. There were even deals at as low as $528/t cfr on Wednesday, a Hanoi trader notes. The Chinese market has acted “crazy” from Thursday afternoon, another Hanoi trader opines. Offers for commercial quality 3-12mm Q235B grade HRC were at $532-535/t cfr and for Q195 grade at $530/t cfr on 10 May.
Despite the run-up in offers, HRC demand is still weak in the country and Vietnamese buyers are extremely price-sensitive towards imports. Demand for rerolling-grade Chinese HRC remains particularly slow and no deals have been reported for some weeks. Chinese HRC offers for 2mm upwards SAE 1006 are at $555-560/t cfr, with no changes from the week before. Kallanish assessed SAE grade 2-2.7mm thickness HRC at $550/t cfr Vietnam, unchanged on-week.
The HRC import market has slowed in the past two months, a Chinese trader says. In addition to weak demand, there is now also a dollar shortage.
Source:Kallanish
