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The Tangshan Q235 150mm square billet price, a key reference to China’s steel market fundamentals, surged to its 13-year high of Yuan 5,570/t EXW and including the 13% VAT by the morning of May 10, according to Mysteel’s assessment, as the country’s ferrous prices both for steel and iron ore skyrocketed.
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Rebar production among China’s 137 steel mills including integrated mills and re-rollers under Mysteel’s weekly survey increased for the seventh successive week over April 29-May 5, or up 1.9% or 70,000 tonnes on week to 3.77 million tonnes, as some rolling lines have been back to production during the Labour Day holiday.
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Mysteel’s assessment of the seaborne premium medium-volatile (PMV) hard coking coal price to China had been on an uptrend for the fourth week, up another $9/tonne to $236/t CFR North China by May 7, or the highest since the start of price tracking on November 4 2019, as a result of China’s strong demand for both domestic and overseas coking coal while the limited availability of PMV globally, market sources shared.
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The daily consumption of imported iron ore sintering fines among the 64 Chinese steel mills under Mysteel’s survey continued to grow for the second survey period over April 22-May 6, up by 3,000 tonnes/day or 0.5% from April 8-21 to 560,600 t/d on average, reaching a two-month high, mainly relying on the stocks at the works instead of hauling from the ports.
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China’ steel mills and traders have renewed their interest in exporting, lured by the far higher global steel prices that are more than sufficient to cover the difference now that Beijing has removed tax rebates on most of the commercial-grade steel exports since May 1, market sources shared on May 8, a make-up working day in China after the Labour Day holiday over May 1-5.
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In April, China’s crude stainless steel output retreated from the record high volume in March, down 3.7% on month to 2.89 million tonnes, Mysteel’s survey among the 32 domestic stainless mills showed, and the declines were mainly in 200- and 400-series.
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Scrap utilization in crude steel output among China’s 211 mills under Mysteel’s survey inched up 0.98 percentage point on month to 25.38% on average, with the samples including both integrated and electric-arc-furnace (EAF) plants and those with both blast furnace (BF) and EAF facilities.
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On May 8, a make-up workday in China after the Labour Day holiday, the country’s national HRB 400E 20mm rebar price soared Yuan 162/tonne ($25/t) to a new high since Mysteel commenced the assessment on March 3 2011, and spot sales of construction steel among the 237 traders under Mysteel’s tracking recovered 2.5% on day.
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Below is the brief near-term outlook of the five key steel products Mysteel shares on a weekly basis, drawing upon the results of related surveys and communication with the Chinese market participants.
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SteelMint’s weekly low-grade Indian iron ore fines (Fe 57%) export index moved down by $2/t to $90/t FOB east coast India. Demand for low grade ore remained weak on stricter pollution control norms in China favouring demand for high grade ore.
