China's H-beam exports mostly made up of large sizes

SteelOrbis Shanghai Recently, a CIS-based member of SteelOrbis sought to purchase hot rolled steel sheet piles from China. While only the Anhui Province-based Magang mill in China has the ability to produce these items, it currently doesn't manufacture them due to the low demand in China's domestic market. Even though there are a few steelmakers able to produce cold formed steel sheet piles, the product quality is poorer and less consistent in comparison with hot rolled piles. Currently, China's H-beam exports include mostly wide sizes i.e. specifications of 300mmx300mm and above. The main export market for China's H-beams is South Korea. It is estimated that the total export volume will hit about 800,000 metric tons in 2006, thus surpassing the production volume of Dongkuk Steel, one of South Korea's local H-beam producers. Sales prices and export prices for China's H-beams are now showing strong upward movements. For instance, the sales price for 300mm x 300 mm is about RMB 3,500 per metric ton, while that of 200 mm x 200 mm ranges from RMB 3,650/mt to 3,680 RMB/mt. On Dec.30 domestic H-beam producers increased their ex-factory prices; Magang Steel, Jingxi Steel and Laiwu Steel, and Rizhao Steel increased their prices for delivery as of Jan. 1, 2007 by RMB117/mt, RMB120/mt, and 100/mt respectively (VAT included). Offers to South Korea are at $490/mt FOB Shanghai - the same level of the previous week. Meanwhile, sales prices in South Korea are about $605-$610 per metric ton nowadays. Thus, a price gap of over $100/mt exists, which result in an optimistic attitude toward the Chinese steelmakers' H-beam exports to South Korea.