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China's national price of the HRB 400 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of the domestic steel market’s sentiment, took a pause last Friday after five working days of continuous growth. The price hovered at Yuan 3,806/tonne ($544/t) including the 13% VAT as of July 10, unchanged from last Thursday, according to Mysteel’s data.
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Domestic auto production and sales saw on-year rises for the third successive month in June after declining for 21 straight months, with the recent recovery of the auto industry’s performance seen as helping more to prop up demand for hot-rolled coil (HRC) than cold-rolled coil (CRC), Mysteel Global has learned.
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The stocks of the key finished steel items held by traders across China continued increasing over July 3-9 given the dampening effect of the intense rains on sales. However, the pace of growth in inventories slowed over the period due to the decline in production and the moderate improvement in market sentiment which stimulated a rise in trading, Mysteel Global noted.
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China's national price of the HRB 400 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of the domestic steel market’s sentiment, continued growing for the fourth working day on July 8 by another Yuan 21/tonne ($3/t) on day, reaching Yuan 3,784/t including the 13% VAT, Mysteel’s data showed.
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China’s steel export prices remained stable over June 29-July 3 after increasing $5-10/tonne during the prior week, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly report, which pointed out that demand from Asia showed signs of recovery with the faster resumption of industry in India after New Delhi’s COVID-19 shutdown and the restart of construction activities in Singapore.
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Capacity utilization of blast furnaces in Tangshan, China’s top steel producing city in North China’s Hebei province, stayed high in early July, even though the city government had earlier ordered most producers to halt or curb their operations from July 1 as an anti-pollution measure, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly investigation.
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China’s national HRB400 20mm dia rebar price assessed by Mysteel reversed up last Friday after seven consecutive days of decline, although it was a slight increase of Yuan 5/tonne ($0.7/t) on day to Yuan 3,751/t including 13% VAT as of July 3. Steel trading rebounded to nearly a one-month high, strengthening the rebar price.
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As of July 2, China's national price of the HRB 400 20mm dia rebar continued the downtrend for the seventh day, decreasing Yuan 3/tonne ($0.4/t) on day to Yuan 3,746/t and including the 13% VAT, according to Mysteel’s data.
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Inventories of major finished steel products held by Chinese traders increased for a second successive week over June 25-July 2, as actual demand was undermined by the continuing frequent rainfalls in South and East China while domestic steelmakers kept production churning, Mysteel’s latest survey showed.
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Stable trading conditions at home encouraged China’s suppliers of hot-rolled coil to raise their export prices by around $10/tonne over June 20-28, yet despite this hike the price gap with the Chinese shippers’ global competitors narrowed as international prices climbed even faster, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly report. Shippers of foreign coils exporting to China stumbled with their pricing as well last week, Mysteel Global notes.
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Starting this month, most steel producers in Tangshan, China’s top steel producing city in North China’s Hebei province, could find themselves forced to halt some facilities including blast furnaces and sintering machines perhaps for as long as three months, as part of production restrictions on industrial enterprises to control pollution and improve air quality, according to a draft seen by Mysteel Global.
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The price of billet in Tangshan, China’s largest steel production base in North China’s Hebei province, is under pressure from all directions, the chief causes being the persistent supply gap (but low profit margins producers can win), slow trading and the swollen stocks of finished steel stocks gathering dust in the yards of re-rollers.
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China’s national price of HRB400 20mm dia rebar declined further and at a faster pace on Monday, down Yuan 19/tonne ($2.7/t) from last Friday to Yuan 3,764/t including the 13% VAT as of June 29. Steel trading retreated markedly amid continuous rainfalls in South and East China.
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Blast furnace capacity utilization rate among China’s 247 steel mills grew up for the fifteenth consecutive week over June 19-24 by another 0.76 percentage points to 93.42%, according to Mysteel’s weekly survey, as most of the Chinese steel mills had not shown any inclination to cut down on their output in the rainy season yet.
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Major finished steel stocks at the Chinese traders ended its 14 weeks of continuing declines since late March over June 19-24, though the recovery was merely 61,400 tonnes or merely 0.3% on week, mainly as the domestic steel demand had shown signs of slowing with the heavy rainfalls having hit South and East china, while steel mills had yet trimmed the output promptly, according to Mysteel’s latest survey.
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Steel re-rollers in Tangshan, the largest steel production base in North China’s Hebei province, resumed operations since the start of last weekend following a short-term production ban enforced to control pollution, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly survey. Nevertheless, as most are operating at breakeven point, their pace of production was generally lethargic.
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China’s national HRB400 20mm dia rebar price reversed down by Yuan 9/tonne ($1.3/t) on day to Yuan 3,793/t including 13% VAT as of June 23, losing losing all the gains over June 19-22, according to Mysteel’s assessment, and the daily trading volume remained largely stable though traders admitted the growing difficulty in receiving payments from the end-users.
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Over June 13-19, China’s steel exporters had raised their offering prices of the B500B 18-25mm rebar by another $5/tonne on week to $441/t FOB Shanghai port on average, in contrast to the recent softening in China’ domestic steel prices together with the weakening in demand in the rainy season.
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China's national price of the HRB 400 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of the domestic steel market’s sentiment, reversed up last Friday after eight consecutive days of decline. It was assessed at Yuan 3,796/tonne ($537/t) including the 13% VAT as of June 19, up Yuan 3/t on day, according to Mysteel’s data.
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Chinese production of air-conditioners declined by 14.7% on year to 19.4 million units during May, according to the latest data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics, with the May result taking total production over January-May to some 78 million units, lower by 23.1% on year, the NBS data show. However, the pace of the decline had slowed marginally from the 24.8% decrease charted over the first four months.
