Taiwan’s China Steel Corp's latest hot rolled coil export price mirrors the push by leading Asian mills to lift prices to match global levels, Kallanish notes.

CSC’s export prices for 2mm base SAE 1006 HRC for April shipments are tagged at $880-890/tonne fob Taiwan. Domestic prices in Taiwan rose by about TWD 800/t ($29/t) and are now pegged at around $900/t.

The Taiwanese mill’s offer, released on Monday, is about $920/t cfr effective, a Jakarta trader says. Its offers increased by an average of $100/t, he notes. “$920 is just right,” an Indian mill representative says. “I think that the price level in Vietnam will move up now to the $880/t cfr level,” he adds.

Two weeks ago, Nippon Steel hiked its export prices, also by around $100/t, to $950/t cfr Southeast Asia. HRC offers from South Korea and India are also prevailing at around $910-930/t cfr. But no deals have been struck at these levels so far, trading participants say.

“The mills are testing the market,” a Taipei trader says. “Prices should be going up but mills will have to come down a little. Nothing has happened after Japanese strip offers rose to $950/t cfr.” A regional trader observes: “It’s true that nobody has booked at above $900/t cfr. It’s difficult to support such steep price increases unless end-users have to replenish urgent sizes.”

Meanwhile, slab prices are rising amid the surge in flat products markets. A cargo of Vietnamese slab was booked this week to South Korea at $730/t fob, Northeast Asian trading sources hear.

Previously, traders heard market chatter that Indonesian slab was booked at $715-720/t cfr. A Taiwanese trader believes this slab price is possible given that a Taiwanese re-roller would be able to sell HRC at $880/t cfr Southeast Asia. This would net back to $830/t fob Taiwan, giving sufficient room for a $100/t rolling margin, he calculates.

Trading sources say that China is not active for slab imports. “China is behind the other markets,” a Hong Kong trader says. HRC prices are too low in China to allow for imports, a Chinese trader says.