During the past week ending March 28, the Chinese cold rolled coil (CRC) steel market has generally been following a stable trend. Average CRC prices in China can be viewed in the SteelOrbis price reports section.
In the given week, in the Shanghai market prices of CRC have continued to move sideways, with some traders keeping their offers at high levels. As the weather has improved, market activity has started to increase slightly. At present, buyers are focused on purchases of low-priced materials. As market support is still insufficient, traders continue to remain cautious.
In Tianjin where Shougang Group, Baotou Steel and Tianjin Steel hold a major share of the local CRC market, traders' inventories are at normal levels. Meanwhile, Tangshan Steel has not been offering much CRC material to the domestic market as it has been active in the export markets lately. Tianjin's CRC market has not been performing as well as the local HRC market. It is difficult to push up prices in the local CRC market and a decline is also expected in the market transaction volume. However, traders have been reassured somewhat by support from costs.
In Lecong, some improvement has been seen in market activity despite reduced interest of buyers in high-priced CRC materials. At present, total CRC inventory in Lecong stands at 550,000 mt, constituting an obstacle to increases in market prices.
On the whole, it is expected that Chinese CRC prices will maintain their current levels in the coming week.