Posted on 11 Dec 2024
The Vietnamese hot rolled coil market continues to weaken with a local producer cutting domestic prices below that of its competitor, Kallanish notes.
Pending new supply in Vietnam and other regions, and the prospect of anti-dumping duties on Chinese HRC imports are near-term factors being observed closely for their impact on the market.
Vietnamese hot strip producer Formosa Ha Tinh Steel (FHS) announced on 10 December a price cut in its domestic prices for HRC for February shipment. For bookings of 20,000 tonnes and more, the mill’s non-skin passed HRC was set at VND 13,145/kg ($519/tonne) cfr southern Vietnam, compared to VND 13,530/kg last month.
The mill has a price range for different tonnages, with larger quantities sold at lower prices. For orders of 10,000-20,000t, the firm’s latest sales price is $522/t cfr, for 5,000-10,000t, $525/t, for 2,000-5,000t, $528/t and for up to 2,000t, $531/t cfr.
FHS’s latest prices are set lower than its rival mill. Hoa Phat Group announced on 2 December its prices for non-skin passed SAE1006 or SS400 grade HRC for February/March shipment of around $527/t (VND 13,370/kg) cfr southern Vietnam.
Re-rollers in Vietnam are facing poor demand for coated products domestically and in export markets.
Meanwhile, Hoa Pha recently commissioned its second blast furnace plant at its ongoing Dung Quang 2 expansion project. The 300-tonne BF converter plant has started producing slab, while hot trials of the mill’s hot strip mill are only targeted to start in late December.
“Commercial HRC production should commence by [the] end of first-quarter 2025,” an informed source says. Hoa Phat currently produces 3mt of HRC and will produce 2.5mt more next year, FHS's HRC production is 4.5mt but Vietnamese annual HRC demand totals around 13-14mt, he adds.
The group’s new HRC capacity will coincide with the results of a pending antidumping investigation against HRC from China and India. The imposition of anti-dumping duties on China-origin HRC imports will help Hoa Phat in its HRC sales, a Hanoi trader says. “Hoa Phat will be very strong in 2025,” he adds.
Malaysia’s Eastern Steel is also expected to produce its first coil at its 2m t/year hot strip mill by late December, company sources say. The steelmaker plans to sell HRC products to the domestic and export markets.
Source:Kallanish
