Vietnam : Formosa Ha Tinh Corp. Reduces HRC Offer by USD 10/MT

Vietnam's domestic steel producer - Formosa Ha Tinh has today announced monthly revision in its steel prices today.The company has reduced its offers by USD 10/MT for Oct shipments.

According to sources, revised offers for HRC (SAE 1006 skin pass) is assessed around at USD 531/MT CIF Ho Chi Minh city against last month's offer which was at USD 541/MT CIF basis.

Meanwhile, offers for HRC of (non-skin pass) stood at USD 526/MT, CIF basis. Last month the company was offering the same grade at USD 536/MT CIF basis.

Also current offers for HRC (SS400) is hovering around USD 521/MT CFR basis.

Few traders were expecting further decline in Formosa offers. Formosa declined its HRC offers due to following reasons:

1. Imported HRC offers from China fall by USD 20-25/MT- Imported HRC offers to Vietnam from China witness continual decline owing to weakening steel prices in nation's domestic market.

As per SteelMint prices assessment, imported HRC offers from China stood around USD 528/MT CFR basis in the beginning of Jul'19 which came down to USD 505/MT CFR basis in beginning of Aug'19. Although it decline further and currently stood around USD 485-490/MT CFR basis.

2. Competitive offers of imported HRC to Vietnam from India- Imported HRC offers to Vietnam from India also witness downside since last one month as Indian steel mills are trying to export surplus to Asian markets. Indian steelmakers are offering imported HRC offers to Vietnam around USD 477-478/MT CFR Vietnam for Sep shipments in order to entice the buyers to book the material at lower prices.

3. Low bids- Company officials shared that demand continue to remain weak in Vietnam market over slump in imported HRC offers. However end users in Vietnam are looking for cheaper alternatives which pushed domestic integrated steelmaker to reduce prices for Sep-Oct deliveries.

Source- SteelMint Research