ASEAN import markets for long steel products continue to be muted, with buyers exercising caution due to the volatility in Chinese steel futures. The SHFE market has been correcting downwards after a rally at the start of the week following China's Labour Day holiday.
In Vietnam, offers for 6.5mm upwards SAE 1008 wire rod from several Chinese mills for end-June shipment remain unchanged at $530/tonne cfr Vietnam. However, suppliers need to resort to non-VAT wire rod because current offers that are VAT-compliant, at around $550/t cfr Vietnam, will not find any takers due to Vietnam's 6.2% safeguard import duty on wire rod.
Offers in the Philippines for China-origin June-shipment wire rod which is VAT-compliant remain at around $550/t cfr Manila this week.
At the same time, quotes for Indonesian wire rod are prevailing at $550-555/t cfr Manila. Previously, orders in the Philippines were mostly for non-VAT Chinese wire rod at lows of $505/t cfr in early April.
In Thailand, Malaysian-origin 6.5mm diameter wire rod is being offered at $550/t cfr and wire rod from Indonesia at $555/t cfr. Regional wire rod imports have lost competitiveness against domestic rod after exporting mills hiked offers to Thailand.
Meanwhile, a Malaysian mill's direct offer for theoretical-weight rebar for June shipment remains unchanged at around $535/t trucked to Singapore, equivalent to $525-530/t cfr Singapore. Kallanish maintains BS4449 500B 10-40mm diameter rebar at $525/t cfr Singapore theoretical weight, unchanged on-week.
