Vietnam: Imported HRC offers from China drop w-o-w in recent deal

Imported hot rolled coil (HRC) offers to Vietnam from China dropped by around $20/t w-o-w. The Vietnamese market witnessed some restocking activity. However, deals were heard concluded at lower levels amid export price cuts by some Chinese suppliers

Imported HRC offers:

• Chinese HRC (SAE1006) offers were heard at $555-560/t CFR, stable w-o-w. Offers for HRCs (SS400) were heard at around $580-585/t CFR.
  
  
• Indian mills are not offering in the market for quite a while.
  
  
• Meanwhile, no offers were heard from Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Russia this week.
  
  

A Vietnamese steel major is reported to have concluded an import deal for 30,000 t of HRC (SAE1006) from China last week. The deal was concluded at a price of $560-563/t CFR, as certain Chinese mills have lowered HRC export offers. Moreover, buying activity in the Vietnamese market has shown improvement amid restocking.

Hoa Phat ups HRC offers in recent announcement

Hoa Phat has hiked monthly HRC (SAE1006, non-skinpasses) prices by VND 3,00/kg ($8/t) for July and early-August sales. Post-revision, effective prices stand at $578/t CIF HCMC or VND 13,700/kg, excluding VAT. The company has commissioned the second-phase expansion of the Danieli Quality Strip Production (QSP) plant in Dung Quat and has suspended plant operation for 27 days to carry out the upgrade.

Outlook
The SHFE HRC futures (October contract) rose by RMB 88/t ($12/t) w-o-w to RMB 3833/t ($529/t) today against RMB 3745/t ($517/t) a week ago.

Whether the uptick in Chinese futures as well as domestic HRC prices in Vietnam will manage to push up export offers, remains to be seen.