Vietnam: Imported HRC trades resume on competitive offers

Vietnamese importers resumed their HRC bookings after the Chinese Golden Week holidays. This week, users have collectively booked around 60,000-70,000 t HRC (SAE 1006) for end Nov-Dec deliveries, trade sources reported SteelMint.

Deals mentioned below:

• China-based major steelmaker Baosteel booked 10,000 t HRC at $525/t CFR Vietnam.
  
  
• Russian steelmaker MMK steel booked around 30,000 t HRC at $510/t CFR Vietnam.
  
  
• Arcelor Mittal, Kazakhstan booked 20,000 t HRC at $510/t CFR basis.
  
  

Key highlights-

1. Domestic offers remained on the higher side- Recently, Vietnam's major integrated steel manufacturer Formosa Ha Tinh has revised its HRC prices by $15/t and offering skin pass at $535-540/t CIF basis, while non-skin pass is at $530-535/t CIF basis. Still, the domestic offers continue to remain on the higher side compared to imports.

2. Competitive offers for imported HRC- The imported HRC offers continue to remain well below the domestic offers by around $10-25/t, which have regained the interest of importers. However, the Chinese HRC offers have come down by around $15/t in the past one month as against a $540/t CFR basis at the beginning of Sep '20.

3. Chinese cargoes gaining preference in absence of Indian supplies- Indian steel mills have shifted their interest to the domestic market on improved demand. Mills are not offering to the Vietnam market for the last few days. Thus, importers are preferring Chinese and Russian origin cargoes at cheaper prices.