During the week ending June 17, the Chinese domestic rebar and wire rod market has generally declined, though wire rod prices in Shanghai have registered an uptick. On June 17, rebar futures contract (1301) offers closed at RMB 3,477/mt ($559/mt) at Shanghai Futures Exchange, down $1/mt as compared to the pre-holiday period. Average domestic rebar and wire rod prices in China's main markets can be viewed in the SteelOrbis price reports section.
During the previous couple of weeks, wire rod prices had continued to drop sharply in Shanghai and some other areas, which caused sellers to be less enthusiastic about selling wire rod, resulting in supply shortages for the product. Consequently, in the past week some traders in the areas in question started to raise their sales prices. However, amid the overall sluggishness in the domestic market, a downtrend has still been observed in the rebar and wire rod markets in most of China. Additionally, the recent slowdown in construction activity has negatively affected demand for long steel products. It is thought that domestic rebar and wire rod prices in the Chinese domestic market are likely to continue their soft trend in the short term.