Hot rolled coil import prices have spiraled upwards in Vietnam amid a firm Chinese import market, Kallanish notes. Exporters have raised their offer prices to Vietnam while domestic mill, Formosa Ha Tinh, has sold out its latest sales allocations.

There is market talk among certain Chinese and Indian traders that Indian SAE 1006 HRC was booked at $475/tonne cfr Vietnam during the week. They report that fresh offers have since risen to $485/t cfr Vietnam.

However, Vietnamese traders say that these offers of $475/t cfr, which were avaiilable for the past week, were not taken up. A Vietnamese trader says he checked with various importing sources on Thursday and could not confirm any deal. He says that these August-shipment HRC cargo offers are sourced directly from the Indian mill, but buyers want to pay a maximum of $470/t cfr. High inventories and weak demand amid the rainy season continue to depress the market. Another says that buyers are not bidding at this time because of market uncertainities and political tension between the USA and China.

Offers from other Asian suppliers have similarly risen. Japanese and South Korean offers are prevailing at around $480/t cfr Vietnam. A tier-1 Chinese mill hiked its offer for 100% 2mm thickness SAE 1006 HRC to $500/t cfr Vietnam, up from $495/t cfr two weeks ago.

On 17 July, Formosa Ha Tinh released its offers for nearly 350,000t for August/early September shipment, and announced a list price of $465/t cfr for SAE 1006 HRC. Traders also sold around 100,000t of these allocations to the Chinese market at $470-475/t cfr China.

On Friday, Kallanish assessed 2-2.7mm SAE1006 HRC at $465-475/t cfr Vietnam, $25/t higher week-on-week.