During the week ending July 7, domestic semi-finished steel prices in China have mostly followed a downtrend, though billets prices in Fujian have remained stable, while transaction activity in the overall market is still slack. Average prices of steel billet and slab in the local Chinese market are presented in the following table.
During the given week, inventory levels of semi-finished steel held by steelmakers and traders in China have risen significantly, while sales volume have declined amid slack activity. Recently, iron ore prices have indicated sharp decreases, exerting a negative impact on semi-finished steel prices. Chinese steelmakers have been incurring larger losses, forcing some of them to idle their finished steel production lines, which is unlikely to boost confidence levels in the semi-finished steel market. It is expected that semi-finished steel prices in the Chinese domestic market will likely continue their downtrend in the coming week, though with smaller declines.
Product name | Specification (mm) | Category | City | Price | Price (US$/mt) | Weekly change |
(RMB/mt) | (RMB/mt) | |||||
150 x 150 | Q195-235 | Jiangyin,Jiangsu | 1,920 | 309 | ↓30 | |
Jinzhong,Shanxi | 1,730 | 279 | ↓70 | |||
Tangshan,Hebei | 1,780 | 287 | ↓70 | |||
Fuzhou,Fujian | 1,900 | 306 | 0 | |||
Average price | 1,833 | 295 | ↓43 | |||
150 x 150 | 20MnSi | Jiangyin,Jiangsu | 2,020 | 325 | ↓30 | |
Jinzhong,Shanxi | 1,850 | 298 | ↓70 | |||
Tangshan,Hebei | 1,880 | 303 | ↓80 | |||
Fuzhou,Fujian | 2,000 | 322 | 0 | |||
Average price | 1,938 | 312 | ↓45 | |||
250 x 1,800 x 6,000 | Q235 | Tangshan,Hebei | 1,800 | 290 | ↓100 |
The prices are on actual weight basis, 17 percent VAT is included in all prices and all prices are ex-warehouse.
$1 = RMB 6.21