In August, China’s rebar and wire rod outputs totaled 20.12 million mt and 12.58 million mt, down 16.1 percent and 15.9 percent year on year, while down 4.26 percent and 6.9 percent month on month, respectively.
The annual pace of decline was faster in August in comparison with July, when rebar production fell by 12.5 percent, while wire rod output decrease was just 8.2 percent.
Local rebar prices in China have moved on a downtrend in August, with the highest level of RMB 5,450/mt being seen on August 1, while the lowest level of RMB 5,193/mt on August 19, according to SteelOrbis’ data. In September, the rebar prices in China moved up gradually due to the improved demand and the bolster from declining output.
In the January-August period this year, China’s rebar production totaled 177.63 million mt, up 4.0 percent year on year, 3.2 percentage point slower than the increase recorded in the first seven months this year, according to China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
Wire rod production amounted to 109.13 million mt in the first eight months, up 1.1 percent year on year, 3.6 percentage points slower than the increase seen in the first seven months this year.