Posted on 22 Nov 2024
The ASEAN wire rod import market diverged this week, Kallanish notes, with strengthening seen in the Chinese domestic market, while demand remains sluggish in regional home markets.
In Vietnam, similar-sized mesh-grade Chinese wire rod offers for December shipment have sprung back to $485/t cfr, Vietnamese trading sources say. Offers had hit lows of $475-480/t cfr late last week when the Chinese steel future market was down sharply, a southern Vietnam trader says.
However, offers for mesh-grade 6.5mm and up diameter Chinese wire rod for January shipments at around $480-485/tonne cfr Manila registered a fall of $10/t for the second consecutive week. A local trader believes that an order for Chinese wire rod was booked at around $490/t cfr Cebu on Wednesday. He estimates for freight to cost around $10-15/t higher to Cebu compared to Manila.
Kallanish assesses SAE 1008 6.5mm-diameter wire rod at $480-485/t cfr Manila, down $10/t on-week.
The market is quiet, a Jakarta trader says. A leading Indonesian mill is offering mesh-grade and 6.5mm diameter wire rod at $490/t fob, end-January shipment, down $5 from last week.
In Thailand, some suppliers are inviting Chinese wire rod at $498/t cif.
“I still can't get bids,” a Bangkok trader says. But another has heard of a certain Chinese trader even offering at $485-490/t cif. Such low-priced Chinese wire rod export offers are generally believed to be wire rod shipments which may be evading full payment of Chinese VAT.
A certain Thai induction furnace mill recently lowered its domestic wire rod prices to THB 18/kg ($520/t) delivered for order of 500t and more with 100% pre-payment. Others are finding it very difficult to compete with the mill's price. "We even stopped selling," a trader says. Malaysian wire rod offers are at $515-520/t cif and wire rod from the above-mentioned mill, at $520/t cfr.
Source:Kallanish
