Prices in Asia's hot-rolled coil market are poised for more upticks immediately after the Lunar New Year holiday, according to industry sources.
"There is a sense of tightness in HRC supply in Asia, especially with fewer cargoes heading to the region from March and April," a source at a major re-roller in Vietnam said.
This is largely due to an expected decrease in shipments from Indian steelmakers that had been actively shipping HRC to Asia since last year's monsoon season.
"Offers from Indian steel mills have been very high since the start of the year, and buyers have lost interest in these cargoes," the same source, who is in the procurement department of the re-roller, said.
Offers for Indian HRC have moved up to $530-535 per tonne cfr Vietnam this month. Indian cargoes have been consistently offered at $5-10 per tonne above those for Chinese and South Korean materials.
Fastmarkets' weekly price assessment for steel hot-rolled coil (commodity) export, fob main...