HRC import prices in SE Asia dip on iron ore price plunge

Import prices of commercial quality 3-12mm thick hot rolled coil have fallen to $630-635/tonne CFR Vietnam. Some deals involving small volumes of SS400B HRC from China were concluded at these level last week, trading sources tell SBB. “There are also some buyers who are waiting for prices to fall to $620/t CFR or even lower to $600/t CFR,” a Vietnamese trader says. Chinese offers for this grade were heard at $640-650/t cfr a week ago. The slide in HRC prices is mainly attributed to the plunge in iron ore spot prices. Some stockists in Vietnam expect Chinese export prices to dip to $585-590/t fob, a local trader says.

Some market sources maintain that these low-priced offers are from speculators or stockists in China since offers from Chinese mills average $645-650/t CFR Vietnam. They say the fall in HRC prices is slowing down and that the market could improve by end-November. "The global economic outlook is better with the agreement to boost the euro-zone's bailout fund," a Vietnamese trader says. And the Chinese domestic market will improve after announced production cuts.

Offers of Korean-origin 2mm base SAE 1006 HRC have dropped to $680-685/t CFR Vietnam compared to $685-690/t CFR a week ago. Some Korean offers are heard at lower levels of $665-670/t CFR. “Nobody is buying, so they have to lower prices,” a regional trader says. A Taiwanese re-roller is heard, but not confirmed, to have offered SAE 1006 2mm HRC at $670/t CFR Vietnam–

Some 20,000 tonnes of Japanese-origin SAE 1006 2mm HRC for December shipment was sold to two customers at $690/t CFR two weeks ago.


SE Asian billet importers stay away in bearish market

Sentiment for imported billet continues to be weak in Southeast Asia as iron ore and scrap spot price plummet across the region. A booking of CIS Black Sea billet is heard booked last week at $630/t CFR Thailand. In Philippines, Russian-origin billet was offered at $630/t CFR Philippines and for Korean-origin billet at $640-645/t CFR, which is $5-10/t lower than a week ago.

Traders are generally believed to be making these low-priced offers. “Billet makers in Korea are stepping back and not making fresh offers,” a Korean trader tells SBB.

Vietnamese induction furnace mills are looking to export billet today at $620-630/t fob, local traders tell SBB. “The billet producers are using high-priced scrap so they face difficulties in lowering export prices,” trader in Ho Chi Minh City tells SBB. "Production costs are not competitive," another says. ""I don't think that there are any deals," he adds. An offer of induction furnace billet from Vietnam is heard at $645/t CFR Thailand. Freight within the region is estimated at $20-25/t.

Buying interest is very weak because of fears of offer prices falling further. Regional rebar markets are sluggish. As long as scrap prices continue to tumble, the billet import market in the region will continue to be under pressure, SBB is told.


Vina Kyoei gets approval for new billet plant, bar mill

The Vietnamese government has approved plans by Vina Kyoei Steel to build a meltshop, billet caster and rolling facilities to nearly double the mill’s capacity to about 900,000 tonnes/year when the expansion is completed around 2013.

The new meltshop will host a 90-tonne AC furnace and a billet caster capable of producing 130-150mmsquare billets to 6 metre lengths, and a 500,000 t/y rolling mill. Located at Vung Tau in southern Vietnam,the mill is currently operating at full capacity at 400,000 t/y producing rebars and wire rods from imported and domestically-sourced billets.

Vina Kyoei is owned 45% by Japanese mini-mill Kyoei Steel, 40% by Vietnam Steel Corp, and 9% and 6% respectively by Japanese traders Mitsui and Marubeni-Itochu Steel.

“We have been planning a meltshop at Vina Kyoei to supply billet ourselves to improve competitiveness,”Kyoei spokesman tells SBB. To date, Kyoei has been supplying about 5,000-6,000 t/m of billet from its Osaka plant to Vina Kyoei. “Exports to Vina Kyoei will decrease but we have customers in Southeast Asia and also in Japan, so we will have no problem with losing Vina Kyoei as a billet consumer,” he said.

Vina Kyoei has also been importing billet from other sources and procuring domestically-produced lower priced semis.

With the new facilities Vina Kyoei will start producing angles too, though the company has not decided production volume. Last month it began producing screw bars with technologies transferred from Kyoei.


Source: SBB

Sales of Vietnam construction longs fall in Sep

Sales of construction long products in Vietnam during September reached 382,000 tonnes, a fall of 21% from the previous month but an increase of 34.5% year-on-year, according to Vietnam Steel Association(VSA) data. Production of longs in September at 417,000t was lower by 4.9% m-o-m but higher by 2.5% y-o-y.

Consequently, cumulative sales of longs during this year’s .rst nine months reached 3.65m t, up 5.2%from corresponding period of 2010. Production rose to 3.74m t, an increase of 5.1% over January-September last year.

“Sales for September fell because of the rainy season and because of flooding in the Mekong Delta region,” VSA vice-chairman and general secretary Dinh Huy Tam tells SBB.September sales could also have been dragged down because sales during the previous month (August)were strong at 483,000t, he notes.
Macroeconomic policies implemented to rein in inflation – particularly those keeping bank lending interest rates high and restricting credit financing – have dampened steel demand.

“Apparent steel consumption could fall by 8-10% this year,” Tam says. Steel imports into Vietnam,particularly of .at steel products, have fallen sharply this year because of the slowdown in the electrical appliance, white goods and shipbuilding/ship repair sectors among others, he adds.
The VSA tracks data from its member steel mills that together contribute around 85% of Vietnam's long steel production.
Source: SBB Daily

Hyundai lifts H-beam export prices by $20-30/ft

Export offer prices for Korean wide-flange beams are tipped to strengthen for September/October deliveries. Hyundai Steel, the largest H-beam exporter in the country, says it is raising its H-beam export offer prices by $20-30/tonne to offset higher input costs.

“The export markets in Southeast Asia appear to be sluggish currently so it is difficult to say whether our new prices will be workable in the region,” a company source tells Steel Business Briefing. While demand in the Middle Eastern countries is weak now due to Ramadan, he foresees that this will improve steadily next month after the fasting period ends.

Prevailing offer prices of wide-flange beams for September/October shipments from Korea were around$880/t cfr Singapore in early August, as SBB reported. Hyundai did not reveal its new offer prices this time but market rumours suggest that new offer beam prices from Korea have climbed to about $900/t cfr. InJuly, Korean beam exports amounted to 103,000 tonnes in total, down 14% month-on-month. Hyundai's beam products accounted for more than 90,000 t, an industry source notes. Another Korean H-beam producer, Dongkuk Steel Mill, exported the remaining tonnage. In the first half of this year, the two steel makers' exports were a combined 668,200 t, up 6% year-on-year.

HCM City asks TTI consortium to trim tramway cost

The HCM City government has just asked TTI consortium to reassess the investment capital of the first tramway project in the city, otherwise construction will not be allowed, said the head of the Management Authority for Urban Railways (MAUR) on Thursday.

“By now, the consortium hasn’t got enough conditions to start construction of the tramway this month as scheduled earlier because its financing plan for the project had not been agreed on by the city government,” Nguyen Do Luong told the Daily.

The consortium, grouping Thanh Danh Construction and Trading Co. Ltd, Malaysia-based Titanium Management Co. and Phu My Bridge BOT Co., had suggested total capital of some VND4.1 trillion for the tramway under the build-operate-transfer investment formula.

Considering this suggested investment capital too high, the city government has asked the consortium to redo the project’s financing plan with an aim to trim the final cost so that the city government could give its final approval, he said.

Luong said although the consortium had already won an investment license for the tramway, the permission could be revoked.

“In the coming time, if the negotiation for trimming the cost between the city and the consortium could not be finalised, the BOT contract for the project would not be signed, and then the investment license will also be cancelled,” he stressed.

Two months ago, MAUR had announced to kick off construction on the tramway in August.

The 12.2-kilometer tramway will start at Ben Thanh Market and go along the East-West Highway and the Ben Nghe-Tau Hu Canal to the Mien Tay Coach Station with six main stations and 17 stopovers. The project is expected to be completed in 2012.

To solve the increasing traffic congestion, the city government is calling investors for building six metro routes, one tramway system and two monorails in the city.

Related to the investment of the two monorails, Luong of MAUR also said that the Hanoi-based Dat Phuong Joint Stock Company was seeking the city government’s approval to develop a monorail under the BOT form.

Following the recent suggestion by Dat Phuong, MAUR is preparing all technical and financial procedures for the monorail project for submission to the city government.

Established in 2002, Dat Phuong Joint Stock Company is active in some areas such as traffic works, hydropower and irrigation, construction of infrastructure and urban areas, travel services, hotels and restaurants, according to the company’s website. – Saigon Times