During the week ending December 11, average cold rolled coil (CRC) prices in the Chinese domestic market have moved up, while transaction activity in the overall market has been at low-to-medium levels. Average cold rolled product prices in the local Chinese market are presented in the following table.
|
Product name |
Specification (mm) |
Category |
Average price (RMB/mt) |
Weekly change (RMB/mt) |
Price ($/mt) |
Weekly change ($/mt) |
|
1.0 x 1,250 x C |
SPCC |
4,436 |
+53 |
630 |
+7 |
|
|
CRS |
1.0 x 1,250 x 2,500 |
SPCC |
4,566 |
+66 |
649 |
+10 |
All prices are ex-warehouse and include 13 percent VAT.
During the given week, though some CRC supplies have been arriving in the market, they have been insufficient to meet demand, and this has boosted CRC prices. Meanwhile, raw material prices have been firm, also providing support for CRC prices. There have been some increases in CRC inventories, though they still remain at relatively low levels.
At the same time, local CRC prices have followed the movement of the local hot rolled coil (HRC) market. Moreover, major Chinese steelmaker Baosteel has issued its ex-works prices for January shipment, raising its HRC and CRC prices by RMB 100/mt ($14/mt). Average hot rolled coil prices in the Chinese market have added RMB 60/mt ($8.5/mt) over past the week ended December 11, reaching RMB 3,870/mt ($550/mt) ex-warehouse, according to SteelOrbis’ data.
HRC futures prices at the Shanghai Futures Exchange are at RMB 3,735/mt ($530.5/mt) as of December 11, up RMB 135/mt ($19.2/mt) or 3.75 percent from December 4.
$1 = RMB 7.039