Vietnam has continued to remain inactive in the import scrap segment this week amid the lack of steel demand in the country, especially for flat steel. Vietnamese producers are focusing on purchases of domestic scrap, the prices of which have remained stable, as SteelOrbis has heard.
Offers for Japanese H2 scrap to Vietnam have declined by $5/mt over the past week and are now at $355-360/mt CFR. Interest in Japanese scrap is still on the low side in Vietnam. Buyers’ price ideas for the workable levels for Japanese scrap are almost $10/mt lower than offer prices.
Offers for ex-US bulk HMS I/II 80:20 scrap are still in the range of $365-370/mt CFR Vietnam. Market sources report an offer at $367/mt CFR to Vietnam earlier this week, which can be interpreted as a softening on the upper end. No deals were done as this price level is considered to be high by market players. “It [ex-US offers] is still expensive, though, but Vietnam has been out of the deep sea market for a very long time,” a source on the US West Coast stated.