During the past week China's domestic medium plate market first maintained a general stability before climbing up slightly at the end of the week.
Product name | Specification | Category | Average price (RMB/mt) | Weekly change (RMB/mt) | Price ($/mt) | Weekly change ($/mt) |
Common carbon medium plate | 20 mm | Q235 | 3,757 | +57 | 551 | +8 |
Low alloy medium plate | 20 mm | Q345 | 3,880 | +70 | 569 | +10 |
16 mm | CCS A/B | 4,030 | +90 | 591 | +13 |
As a result of the limited arrivals of new materials observed in various regions due to transportation difficulties, market inventories in the regions have been declining in recent days. Affected by the heavy snowfalls in the north, the eastern and southern markets in China have been experiencing a scarcity of materials from the north and so most new arrivals have been of local materials. Meanwhile, domestic traders have recently followed the mills' example and hiked their prices, raising them by a small margin of RMB 10-20/mt ($1-3/mt), which has generally been accepted by buyers in the market.
As regards end-side demand, although complaints regarding the sluggishness of the trading performance are often heard, the medium plate prices are still on an upward trend despite the slackness of demand. In fact, a certain number of deals continues to be concluded, but the trading volume appears fairly low compared to the extremely high output levels.
In addition, many Chinese mills have recently made upward adjustments to their prices, with the ex-factory prices of first tier materials now offered at RMB 3,700/mt ($543/mt), equivalent to the current levels for these materials in the market. In this connection, traders will inevitably raise their prices in the coming period so as to ensure a profit margin for themselves; however, the increase range may not as big as the previous increase.
In the near future, the medium plate market in southern China is expected to see significant arrivals of materials from the north; thus, market inventories that had decreased under the impact of the severe weather conditions will probably rise up again. In this connection, medium plate prices in China are likely to register some decline against the background of climbing inventory levels, but the overall upward trend is expected to be maintained in the longer term.