Scrap and Billet growth slowed down and showed signs of a slight decrease at the end of the week. However, for HRC, this is an important pivotal week when the price increased significantly, especially after Hoa Phat and Formosa announced the new list price in December. Next week, the focus of the market will be on construction steel with the slight increase announcement of Hoa Phat, but the expectation for recovery is considered large, not only for construction steel but also for billet and scrap.

Imported Scrap Market:

The asking price for imported scrap this week continued to increase, with most of the common scrap offers at $400/ton CFR. Not only did asking prices increase, Vietnamese factories imported scrap again with news of successful transactions of Hoa Phat and VAS, at higher prices. The Import scrap market in Vietnam is expected to continue to rise in line with price trends seen in other countries.

Domestic Scrap Market:

Momentum has slowed down as a number of mills increased price, although the increase was not as great as last week. Most factories only raise prices at the beginning of the week and keep prices to the end of the week. The fact that the billet cannot increase due to limitations on construction steel has restrained the increase of scrap, even small factories have adjusted down slightly. The market next week is forecast to be more unpredictable if construction steel does not increase simultaneously, or market sentiment does not improve.

Export Billet Market:

Due to increased momentum in many countries, export billet offers increased sharply with both IF and BF billets. Many Vietnamese factories have been focusing on the export market for months while the domestic market has been struggling and this is expected to continue.

Domestic Billet Market:

Domestic billet saw increases at the beginning of the week, before moving sideways from the middle of the week and showing signs of a slight decrease at the end of the week. The billet was flat or slightly decreased, mainly because the billet price was close to the construction steel price and needed to remove the bottleneck from construction steel.

Imported HRC Market:

In general, forward prices increased more so the basic offer also increased with both SS400 and SAE 1006. The market almost only had offers from China while the Indian side is expected to launch new offers. New offers at higher prices are expected next week. Imported HRC transactions also resumed, especially after Formosa and Hoa Phat raised the price of HRC listed in December.

Domestic HRC Market:

The focus of the market is the fact that both Formosa and Hoa Phat announced December HRC prices this week. The price increased from 25-55 USD/ton CIF. Notably, Formosa increased sharply and established a new higher price level after many consecutive months of decline. This combined with higher forward prices, increased bids and a slight improvement in local trading also pushed up domestic HRC prices quite clearly this week.

Construction Steel Market:

The most notable news this week is that VAS slightly increased coil price at the beginning of the week and Hoa Phat reported an expected increase in rebar and coil at the beginning of next week. Many bottlenecks in the market are likely to be gradually removed if construction steel increases simultaneously. Also, this week the factory's consumption figures released from December 1 to December 15 are encouraging and many factories are expected to sharply increase consumption volume in December, compared to November.

Steel Tube and Box Market:

A slight correction continues, but the market is heading for a simultaneous rally next week, especially in the North, after a series of corrections have been made. HRC's price increase is also a factor that could push up the price of pipe and box steel.

Steel Sheet Market:

The upward adjustments were also made from the mills, in which many factories increased price 2 times in December such as Hoa Sen, Phuong Nam, Vnsteel Thang Long... The corrugated iron market is improving even though there is still slow but bring more positive prospects.

Soure: GiaThepton.com