During the week ending August 20, Chinese wire rod and rebar prices continued to trend down, with the rebar prices in the northern region registering the largest decreases. On August 20, offers within the scope of the 1301 rebar futures contract at Shanghai Futures Exchange closed at $569/mt. Average domestic rebar and wire rod prices in China's main markets can be viewed in the SteelOrbis price reports section.
Despite the temporary upticks observed in offers in the middle of the past week, prices did not continue to climb due to no support from the raw materials side. In the last few days of the week in question, prices started to decrease again. Amid the weak iron ore and coke markets, the domestic long steel market cannot gain support for any kind of increase. Long steel prices in the domestic market are expected to continue to move downwards in the coming week.