International market supports plates in China

SteelOrbis Shanghai Chinese plate market saw minor rebound in prices last week, due to price hikes by leading steel mills and good international medium plate market. The rebound was especially obvious in northern markets such as Tianjin, where medium plate products are in short supply. The prices in southern markets such as Lecong were rather stable. The overall commercial activity is not brisk in spite of the rebound in prices. Similar to hot rolled products, the favorable international plate market gives Chinese steel mills confidence. Thanks to the tight availability, export offers for A36/S235 medium plate from CIS countries such as Russian and Ukraine rose around 5 to 10 percent. SteelOrbis learnt that Chinese offers for medium plate exported to S. Korea are on the rise once again, and currently at $465-480/mt CFR level, being one of the main reasons for Chinese domestic steel mills' price hike. On Tuesday, March 21, Shanghai No.3 Steel plant hiked its medium plate prices by RMB 200/mt ($25). Following that, Masteel, Anyang Steel, Xinyu Steel, Handan Steel and other leading steel mills hiked their prices one after the other, strengthening traders' confidence in the market. On Tuesday, March 28, the average price of 16mm Q235 B in Shanghai, Tianjin and Lecong is up RMB 64/mt ($8) to RMB 3,517/mt ($438) , while that of 16mm Q345 B is up RMB 85/mt ($11) to RMB 3,600/mt ($448). In Tianjin market the supply is small; therefore the price increase is more obvious. After the continuous price increase since March 24, 16 mm Q235 B price stands at RMB 3,550-3,600/mt ($442-448), higher than the prices in other two markets. Traders are now very cautious due to the price hike in domestic market and the unfavorable sales figure. Prices are expected to remain stable in the short term while they may also drop slightly. The influence of the trade volume and product availability will be greater.