Overview Of Vienam Steel Market From 06.03 to 10.03.2023

This week, despite fluctuations, the Chinese market has shown a fairly rapid recovery, providing some psychological support to the Vietnamese market. Additionally, the steel market this week appears to have a brighter outlook as raw materials and finished steel products have seen price increases. However, weak consumption remains the biggest challenge in the market, not to mention the uncertainty in the scrap market this week. Therefore, it is likely that the market will continue to be volatile in the coming week, but with expectations of recovery.

Import scrap market:

The highlight of this week is the successful conclusion of the Kanto auction session for March, with prices higher than in February 2023. As a result, the offer price of Japanese H2 scrap to Vietnam increased to the range of 444-460 USD/ton CFR. The offer prices of other markets may also increase soon. However, trading in the market still has not shown much improvement.

Domestic scrap market:

The domestic scrap prices this week experienced some fluctuations. At the beginning of the week, Mien Nam Steel increased by 400 VND/kg, while towards the end of the week, Hoa Phat, Tue Minh, and Nghi Son slightly decreased by 100-200 VND/kg, and trader prices also decreased slightly by 100-200 VND/kg. The slight decreases by the mills are considered temporary adjustments.

Export billet market:

Due to the weakness in the Southeast Asian market, the offer price of Vietnam's BF billet has slightly decreased, but towards the end of the week, it increased by an additional 15 USD/ton, reaching 635 USD/ton CFR Philippines, following the upward trend of global billet markets, especially Dung Quat billet.

Domestic billet market:

Billet demand started to improve this week, providing support for price increases. However, the increase in billet prices was slight, ranging from 100-200 VND/kg, equivalent to 0.71%. The prospects for billet price increases remain high as the demand continues to improve.

Import HRC market:

The futures prices in China experienced slight fluctuations this week but mainly continued to rise. The offer price of HRC to Vietnam continued to fluctuate accordingly, reaching 710-720 USD/ton CFR for SAE 1006. The expected offer price from Japan to Vietnam is around 750-760 USD/ton CFR. Additionally, there were transactions recorded in the market this week.

Domestic HRC market:

Compared to the previous week, HRC prices increased slightly by 0.3% this week, but the increases were not consistent and only applied to specific steel grades. The main reason remains weak buying power.

Export construction steel market:

This week, the global construction steel market, especially in Southeast Asia, did not show signs of improvement, despite the price increases in China. Therefore, Vietnamese sellers have not yet announced new export steel price levels.

Domestic construction steel market:

At the beginning of this week, Hoa Phat increased prices by 200 VND/kg for construction steel in the Southern region. Mid-week, Mien Nam Steel also increased prices by 200 VND/kg for both coil and construction steel. However, due to weak consumption in February and slow recovery in March, other mills and traders have kept prices unchanged.

Pipe and box steel market:

The pipe and box steel market has maintained its upward momentum as Hoa Sen and Hoa Phat Binh Duong increased prices by an additional 200 VND/kg. Trader prices also increased slightly by 0.2%, and most prices remained stable towards the end of the week due to weak demand.

Corrugated iron market:

Steel mills still increased conrugated iron prices by 200-300 VND/kg this week, but the number of mills increasing prices was lower, and the magnitude of the increases was smaller. During this week, traders ran promotional programs for International Women's Day in hopes of improving purchasing power, so prices were largely unchanged by the mills.

Source: Giathepton

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