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Baoshan Iron & Steel Co (Baoshan Steel), the listed arm of China Baowu Steel Group, announced to raise its August list prices of carbon steel hot-rolled coil (HRC) for domestic sales by Yuan 100/tonne ($14.3/t), which has been in tune with the improved market sentiment and the comparatively stable fundamentals of late, market sources commented.
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Business involving Chinese steel exports remained slack over July 4-10, as the keenness of domestic exporters for chasing foreign sales ebbed further with rebound in the domestic market, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly report. On the flip side, steel imports were active.
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Stainless steel inventories at commercial warehouses in Wuxi and Foshan, China’s two stainless trading hubs, remained stable over July 3-9 with new arrivals from steel mills replenishing stocks depleted by the continued consumption of stainless users. The tonnage stayed at 488,683 tonnes, almost unchanged from one week previously, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly survey.
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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 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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Stainless steel inventories at the commercial warehouses of Wuxi and Foshan, China’s two stainless trading hubs, returned to the uptrend, up 2.9% on week to 488,700 tonnes over June 29-July 2 after the prior week’s decline, mainly as the demand had slowed down, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly survey.
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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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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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Stainless steel inventories held by the traders in Wuxi and Foshan, China’s two stainless trading hubs, reversed down over June 19-28 after a short-lived rise in the previous week, with the total tonnage easing 0.6% on week to 474,854 tonnes on better sales and lower delivery before the Dragon Boat Festival in China, Mysteel’s latest weekly survey showed.
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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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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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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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Lacklustre demand for stainless steel led total inventories of stainless held by traders in Wuxi and Foshan, China’s two stainless trading hubs, to begin rising this week after inventory levels had been in continuous decline for five weeks. Mysteel’s latest weekly survey found that the total tonnage the traders were holding reversed up by 1% on week to 477,516 tonnes as of June 18.
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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.
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Chinese shipbuilders received new vessels orders equivalent to 11.6 million dead weight tons (dwt) in total over January-May, down 1.2% on year, according to the latest release by the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry (CANSI) published on June 19. Demand for new vessels stayed dull as global freight markets continue to be buffeted by the coronavirus storm, Chinese market sources said Friday, admitting they were pessimistic about the medium- to long-term future for the country’s shipbuilding industry.
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Chinese steel mills had decided to raise their export offering prices marginally on noting signs of fast recovery in steel demand in Asia recently, though they were aware of the challenges in exporting because of higher prices against the other competitors, Mysteel Global understands from the market.
