In the past week, the Chinese cold rolled coil (CRC) market has remained on a slightly weak trend, with some small fluctuations see in prices. However, minor increases have been seen in prices of cold rolled sheet. Local CRC prices in China can be viewed in the SteelOrbis price reports section.
In the Chinese CRC market, delivery volumes in the main local markets have been at medium levels, while inventory has increased somewhat. Furthermore, new arrivals from the mills are expected in the market in the coming weeks, and so traders are expected to come under increasing pressure. Due to shortages of funds, in the past week some traders have been trying to speed up their sales by being more flexible in negotiations. Offer prices in the market are currently characterized by a certain degree of disorder.
As for downstream industries, China's automobile production and sales respectively reached 15.03 million units and 15.16 million units in the first 10 months of the current year, up 2.66 percent and 3.15 percent year on year. At the same time, automobile production and sales in China decreased significantly in October.
Summing up, factors such as fluctuating raw material prices, increased CRC inventory and weakened performance of downstream industries are a source of concern in the Chinese CRC market. Nevertheless, it is expected that the Chinese CRC market will be relatively stable before the Spring Festival.