Chinese mills have continued to increase their hot rolled coil export offers in the last week and have been able to secure a decent volume of deals. Competition is fierce however, with Indian mills in particular active in Southeast Asia, Kallanish notes.

There were very few offers for re-rolling grade heard in the Vietnamese market last week but new offers for 3.5mm SS400B were made at $515/tonne fob from one eastern Chinese mill. Some Chinese mills were doing good business for re-rolling HRC to other markets however, with Anshan Iron and Steel selling out of a 30,000 tonnes allocation and Benxi booking over 70,000t.

Indian mills are providing the main competition for Chinese suppliers currently. Mills such as Bhusan and JSW were selling out their allocation to Vietnam last week. Buyers say their prices are more competitive, with one mill offering cargos of 50% 2mm re-rolling material and 50% commodity 3.5mm at $510/t cfr.

The fact that Chinese mills are still able to sell at all at high offers is largely because the market expects strong prices in the coming weeks. Volumes are still far below the levels seen in the days when Chinese exporters were competing aggressively on prices, and are likely to remain low until the Chinese market turns.