Last week, the medium plate market in northern China still performed stronger than the markets in the southern regions, against the overall background of continuing sluggishness of demand. Meanwhile, China's domestic medium plate market failed to follow the upward trend of slab prices, resulting in increased cost pressure for some second tier mills.
Product name | Specification | Category | Average price (RMB/mt) | Weekly change (RMB/mt) | Price ($/mt) | Weekly change ($/mt) |
Common carbon medium plate | 20 mm | Q235 | 3,210 | -23 | 473 | -3 |
Low alloy medium plate | 20 mm | Q345 | 3,305 | +10 | 485 | +2 |
16 mm | CCS A/B | 3,683 | - | 540 | - |
Following the price climb over the previous two weeks, during the past week the Chinese domestic medium plate market has sensed relatively strong pressure as regards the prospects for future trading activities. Meanwhile, faced with relatively high costs, some mills made upward adjustments to their ex-factory prices in the past week.
As a result of rises seen in both domestic and imported slab prices, some rolling mills were unable to buy in slab at acceptable levels and thus had to suspend their operations. At present, import quotations of slab are generally above the level of $335/mt CFR, with a further ascension appearing likely.
Since rolling mills have some problems in sourcing raw materials, supplies from second and third tier mills are likely to decrease in the future. However, according to the May production schedules released by some large-scale mills, China's domestic medium plate market will still face great challenges coming up to the end of May. Bayi Steel plans to produce 20,000 mt in May with its new medium plate line, while Baotou Steel is scheduled to produce 100,000 mt of wide and heavy plate during the same month. Moreover, Liuzhou Steel will soon resume production following the completion of overhauling works and is expected to produce 100,000 mt of medium plate in May. Thus, the mills' production levels are expected to remain relatively high in the coming period.
On the export side, inquiries began to increase in recent days, while some deals were also concluded. Currently, 12-50 mm SS400 boron-added medium plate is offered at $430/mt FOB for the export market for late May and early June shipment, with deals reported to be concluded at this level. Meanwhile, export quotations of non-boron materials are still at $470-490/mt FOB, but there are no takers.
China's medium plate exports in March reached 270,700 mt, down 549,400 mt or 66.99 percent year on year, totaling $220 million in value, down $483 million or 68.68 percent compared with the same period last year. The average export price was $813.65/mt. Total January-March exports reached 868,900 mt, down 1.3253 million mt or 60.4 percent, amounting to a total value of $830 million, down $960 million or 53.63 percent year on year.
Medium plate imports in March stood at 112,100 mt, down 7,600 mt or 6.32 percent year on year, totaling $176 million in value, up $1 million or 0.63 percent compared with the same month last year. The average import price was $1,573.2/mt. Total January-March medium plate imports came to 286,800 mt, down 15,700 mt or 5.2 percent, amounting to $503 million, up $62 million or 14.11 percent year on year.