Currently in
China's export market for
rebar, domestic
production boron-added BS
rebar is priced at around $450/mt FOB, while vanadium-added
rebar is offered by one first-tier mill at $465/mt FOB. There are not many Chinese mills involved in alloy
rebar production at present for two primary reasons: first, no firm orders are being placed in reflection of the weak state of demand; second, regardless of the narrowing gap with the international price level, the Chinese prices, though closer, are still not competitive enough. The export prices of neighbouring countries like
Taiwan,
Japan and South
Korea are still lower, even though their prices rallied over the past few weeks on the back of rising
scrap prices. It is still not clear if the situation will develop further and finally lead to a resumption of Chinese
rebar export activity. However, there appears to be only a slim possibility of this happening in the short term, especially as the local Chinese
longs market is showing a positive performance at the moment, which will prevent
China's export prices from dropping further. On the other hand, the price hike in the
Far East still needs to be accepted by the market.