Last week, the Chinese mills continued to lower their ex-factory prices. For instance, Baosteel and WISCO issued their April prices of hot rolled coils, bringing certain impacts to the market atmosphere and price trend. Nevertheless, the critical point for the future still lays on the consumption degree of the lofty market inventory levels.
Product name |
Specification |
Category |
Average price(RMB/mt) |
Weekly change (RMB/mt) |
Price($/mt) |
HR |
5.75 mm x 1,500 mm |
Q235B |
3,350 |
37 |
490 |
HR |
2.75 mm x 1,250 mm |
Q235B |
3,540 |
-77 |
518 |
China's hot rolled market fluctuated downward within a relatively small range over the past week. Despite the decrease in April prices, Baosteel's tax-included price of hot rolled coils still stays higher than the current market levels, thus boosting the market confidence to a certain extent. Moreover, with the shrinking volume of supplies held by small-scale traders, more and more materials have concentrated to the hand of large-scale traders, which seems beneficial to the stabilization of market prices. In addition, in the past week when the NPC and CPCCC were held, many good or bad news hasn't been released, so many players preferred to take a standoff position. Meanwhile, hot rolled inventories in various leading markets remain higher than the normal market levels; therefore how to consume the high inventory is still the critical point for relieving market pressure. According to the statistics, total hot rolled inventory in Shanghai currently amounts to 795,890 mt, up 12,910 mt week on week.
In recent days, China's leading producers continued to slash their ex-factory prices. Last week, Baosteel announced a downward adjustment of RMB 200/mt ($29/mt) to its April HRC prices, with the new price of 5.75 mm x 1,250 mm x C staying at RMB 3,392/mt ($497/mt) and that of 2.0 mm x 1,250 mm x C at RMB 3,792/mt ($555/mt). Later on, WISCO also cut its HRC prices by RMB 200/mt ($29/mt) for April, leaving the price of 2.75 mm Q235 at the level of RMB 3,450/mt ($505/mt) and that of 5.5 mm Q235 at RMB 3,340/mt ($489/mt). All the above prices exclude 17 percent VAT.
As regards the export market, no sign of recovery has been observed yet, and players become increasingly indifferent towards the export of hot rolled products. With regard to imports, quotations of CIS hot rolled coils continued to slip in recent days, with the mainstream offers to China standing around $370-380/mt CFR, down $20-30/mt week on week.