Below is the brief near-term outlook for five key steel products Mysteel shares on a weekly basis, drawing upon the results of related surveys and communication with Chinese market participants.

China's Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.5% in July from a year earlier, though it slipped 0.1% from the previous month, while the Producer Price Index (PPI) advanced 3.5% on year but slid 0.7% on month, according to the latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

China's prices of major steel products, including rebar, square billet and hot-rolled coil (HRC), diverged during the week of August 3-7, with those of rebar and HRC weakening further amid thin demand from end-users, while the prices of billet recovered slightly thanks to the replenishment of downst