Posted on 19 Aug 2024
Plunging Chinese hot rolled coil offers in Vietnam are causing some disorder, Kallanish notes. Some buyers are trying to renegotiate from previous contracts concluded when prices were higher.
Offers for Chinese HRC plunged over the past week in Vietnam. Chinese offers for 3-12mm Q235 HRC fell to around $460/tonne cfr for shipment by 10 October. Offers for 3mm base thickness Q195 HRC are at as low as $458/t cfr. Some deals transacted at $456-458/t cfr, trading sources say.
These latest prices are around $15-20/t lower than the $470-478/t cfr Vietnam offers at the start of last week, and $30-35/t lower than the $490-495/t cfr Vietnam reported at the end of the week through 9 August.
Vietnamese buyers are returning to renegotiate their contracts concluded around this period, namely shipments by early October, trading sources say.
“The market is terrible now. Buyers want a $15-20/t discount at the least,” a Hanoi trader says. This applies to bookings made in the past two weeks, he adds. He attributes some of the blame to “crazy agents” who keep pressing down the market by inviting bids at ever lower prices.
Offers for rerolling SAE 1006 HRC have also fallen, albeit by a smaller margin, to $483/t cfr last Friday, from $490/t cfr on around 13 August and from $510-515/t cfr on 9 August. “No bookings are heard,” a regional trader reports.
Kallanish assessed SAE grade 2-2.7mm thickness HRC at $480-485/t cfr Vietnam, down $27.5 week-on-week.
Source:Kallanish
