Competitive prices of Russian cargoes softened hot-rolled coil prices in Asia over the past week, though the rate of decline are likely to slow down from this week with Indian offers gaining some stability, sources told Fastmarkets.
Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel HRC import, cfr Vietnam - which mainly looks at Chinese 2-3mm re-rolling-grade SAE1006 HRC and equivalent products sold into Vietnam - was $451-452 per tonne cfr for the week ending Monday September 23, down by $6-13 per tonne from a week earlier.A South Korean trader was heard to have sold about 30,000-40,000 tonnes of Russian HRC at $441-442 per tonne cfr Vietnam to a few pipe producers in Haiphong, in northeastern Vietnam. This transaction involves November-shipment small pipemaking HRC of up to 13 tonnes, and the price is equivalent to about $451-452 per tonne cfr Vietnam for mainstream HRC weighing up to 23 tonnes.November-shipment mainstream HRC from the same Russian producer was also heard to have been sold by traders at...