In the past week, the Chinese cold rolled coil (CRC) market has seen a slight downward fluctuation. Average CRC prices in China can be viewed in the SteelOrbis price reports section.
Pessimism has lately prevailed in the Chinese CRC market. In November, China's car production and sales volumes respectively totaled 1.6950 million units and 1.6560 million units, down 3.41 percent and 2.42 percent year on year. Also, household appliance sales have been at low levels in the fourth quarter, and so CRC demand has continued to soften. With New Year's Day and China's Spring Festival approaching, most end-users are only purchasing materials in line with their needs, and do not want to book large cargoes until prices have fallen further. In this context, it is hard for CRC prices to rise in the short term. Meanwhile, traders are running low on funds and are seeking to sell off materials. As a result, they may decrease their prices further.
Turning to the steel mills, following Baosteel's new price policy issued last week, Anshan Iron and Steel Co. has issued its price policy for January shipment. Accordingly, its prices of CRC products have risen by RMB 50/mt ($7/mt), though the steelmaker is also giving a discount of RMB 100/mt ($15/mt) to regular customers. Although mills' price increases will stabilize the market to some degree, they will not be sufficient to push market prices upward.
Summing up, it is expected that the Chinese CRC market will continue to fluctuate in a downward direction in the coming week.