Imported scrap market:

There are no longer offers at 700 USD/ton CFR, but premium scrap transactions have reached 665 USD/ton CFR with HS from Japan. This week, there are no price quotations for H2, but other substitute scraps have all increased, regardless of whether they are imported from any market. There is no indication that the imported scrap prices will decrease next week. This will have an impact on the domestic market.

 Domestic scrap market:

Prices continued to rise at the beginning of the week, then stabilized and ended the week with some differentiation as some factories and scrap yards in the North reduced prices slightly. Nevertheless, the overall market trend is still upward, with many large factories raising prices twice, such as TISCO, Shengly, VAS, etc. Merchant prices also increased rapidly until midweek before stabilizing amidst some divergent developments in certain regions.

 Exported steel billet market:

China has exported billets due to better prices in the domestic market, resulting in no imports. This is also because the Duong Son billet is still relatively low, not exceeding 750 USD/ton. Consequently, the Vietnamese exported billet market remains frozen. In the first two months of the year, Vietnamese billet exports sharply decreased in volume and value compared to 2021 when billet was the top exported item in terms of quantity and value.

Domestic steel billet market:

The overall trend is still upward, especially until midweek when construction steel rose uniformly by 600 VND/kg. However, by the end of the week, pressure led to a downturn in billet prices. The pressure comes from the slowdown in the consumption of construction steel and, particularly, the freeze in the export market leading to an oversupply in the domestic market.

Imported HRC market:

India has been granted additional export quotas to the EU, leading to neglect of the Vietnamese market. Meanwhile, the Chinese futures market is gradually rebounding. As a result, import prices have decreased, with lackluster quotations and transactions not meeting expectations. This is expected to change next week when futures prices rise, and the new HRC prices of Fomrosa and Hoa Phat both increase significantly.

Domestic HRC market:

Both Formosa and Hoa Phat have experienced soaring prices, pushing the CIF price above 900 USD/ton. This has driven up domestic trading at the end of the week, with prices inching up after the initial decline at the beginning of the week. In the coming week, the possibility of a resumption of an upward trend in the domestic market is high. 

Construction steel market:

Most factories continue to raise prices by an additional 600 VND/kg at the beginning of the week, pushing the prices of construction steel even higher. The price hike has put pressure on the consumption system, and although preliminary results are positive, it is likely that the sales output in March 2022 will be lower than the same period in 2021. However, this may not prevent a new wave of price increases as input costs are still rising, and domestic prices are lower than international prices. 

Pipe and box steel market:

Mills continue to raise prices, but the pace is slower, partly to regulate prices and partly to await new prices from Formosa and Hoa Phat. Next week, the upward trend is expected to be faster and more uniform. 

Finally, HRC has also seen the opportunity to increase prices with rising futures prices, especially the soaring prices of Formosa and Hoa Phat. This, combined with the increase in prices of finished steel products such as sheets, pipes, boxes, and profiles, will strengthen the resurgence of the domestic and imported HRC markets. In contrast to construction steel, price increases may still occur, but the consumption pressure may be hard to remove, and the pressure on the distribution system will increase. Therefore, domestic billet is also under pressure, especially as exported billet cannot increase as expected. Regarding scrap, price trends are more complex, with the possibility of maintaining fluctuations (up, down, and sideways) in the coming week.