Posted on 14 Mar 2025
The ASEAN market for imported rebar remains largely quiet. However, recent interest for Vietnamese rebar for export in US garnered some attention, Kallanish notes.
A leading Vietnamese mill recently closed export deals through international traders for a large tonnage. The mill is heard to have secured rebar sales of 160,000 tonnes during the weeks through 24 February and 4 March at around $515/tonne fob Vietnam.
“They have sold out for April shipments,” a manager with another Vietnamese mill hears.
The sales were possible despite the 25% US tariffs "because US prices already moved up almost 20% since," a trader notes.
“I had some inquiries from international traders for export to the US market,” another mill manager says. While his mill is evaluating the inquiry, the local Vietnamese and Cambodian markets are the main priority markets because the mill does not have many allocations for export.
Recently, domestic prices in Vietnam have inched up by the equivalent of around $5/t amid higher scrap and raw material costs and are prevailing at $520/t ex-works.
On whether Vietnamese rebar exports to US will continue, market sources say that this is uncertain. “Tariffs news can change every day, it is difficult to predict,” the second mill manager says. “Let me put it this way - ‘What’s Trump going to do next?” - once that question can be answered then we will know,” a southern Vietnam trader says.
In Hong Kong and Singapore, rebar prices remain stagnant particularly since the Two-Session meetings in Beijing did not provide positive news to support the steel industry.
In Hong Kong, a recent deal for Chinese actual-weight is heard concluded at $485/t cfr.
“Chinese rebar has been dominating the Hong Kong market recently,” a Hong Kong importer says. “Malaysian rebar is not being offered here for now because the prices here are too low,” he adds.
A leading Malaysian blast furnace mill’s theoretical-weight rebar for April delivery was last heard offered at $475-480/t dap (trucked to) Singapore, down from $490/t dap last week. The dap Singapore basis price is estimated to be $5-10/t higher than on a cfr Singapore basis.
Chinese rebar was heard quoted at $490/t cfr but there were also chatter of an offer at $475/t cfr. There are no recent deals heard concluding.
Kallanish assessed BS4449 500B 10-40mm diameter rebar at $470-475/t cfr Singapore theoretical weight, down $10/t week-on-week.
Source:Kallanish
