VIETNAM STEEL SCRAP: Prices slip amid China plunge, weaker demand for billet

Reduced demand from Chinese buyers for billet exports from Vietnam added to the downward pressure on prices.

Sellers of bulk heavy melting scrap (HMS) 1&2 (80:20) lowered their offers to $560 per tonne cfr Vietnam in the week to Friday.

“This is about $5 per tonne lower than last week,” a seller source handling bulk cargoes told Fastmarkets. 

Bids came in at $545-548 per tonne cfr Vietnam, but buyers were not very aggressive this week, a seller source in Vietnam told Fastmarkets.

“While rebar prices are going up, [and are] still at $700-740 per tonne. Industrial activity is also not rising sharply,” he said. 

A major Vietnamese steelmaker was offering CB240-T and CT3 wire rod at 16.93-17.13 million Vietnamese Dong ($742-752) per tonne, and CB300-V, CT5 and SD295 rebar at 16.83-16.98 million Dong. It also listed CB400-V and SD390 rebar at 16.83-17.03 million Dong. 

This is a week-on-week increase of 300,000 Dong per tonne.

Containerized HMS 1&2 (80:20) was sold at $490 per tonne cfr Vietnam earlier in the week.

Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for deep-sea bulk cargoes of steel scrap, HMS 1&2 (80:20), cfr Vietnam was $550-555 per tonne on Friday, down by $10 per tonne from $560-565 per tonne cfr Vietnam a week earlier.

Bulk Japanese H2 scrap, meanwhile, was on offer at $538-540 per tonne cfr Vietnam, but there remained a large buy-sell gap – with buyers bidding at $530 per tonne cfr Vietnam.

“The falling prices in China are causing billet buyers to stay away and bid lower, so Vietnamese steel mills are not able to follow scrap prices higher,” a scrap buyer source in Vietnam told Fastmarkets.

Spot prices for rebar and billet in China have been plunging since the second week of October, pressured by repeated signals from the Chinese government that commodity prices should not increase too fast and that the authorities would look closely at traders’ books to ensure they were not hoarding cargoes to manipulate prices.

Bulk Japanese shredded scrap was on offer this week at $585 per tonne cfr Vietnam, 

And bulk Hong Kong origin H1&H2 (50:50) was offered at $520 per tonne cfr Vietnam, while bulk oversized Hong Kong-origin plate & structural (P&S) scrap was offered at $560 per tonne cfr Vietnam.

Fastmarkets’ weekly price assessment for steel scrap H2, Japan-origin import, cfr Vietnam was $535-540 per tonne on Friday, down by $5 per tonne from $540-545 per tonne a week earlier.