The Chinese steel plate market has registered an increase during the week ending December 1. However, considering inflation and the government's tight monetary policy, domestic traders find it difficult to predict the market trend for the coming period. As of December 1, the average prices of steel plate products in the main Chinese cities are as follows:
Product name |
Specification |
Category |
Average price (RMB/mt) |
Weekly change (RMB/mt) |
Price ($/mt) |
Weekly change ($/mt) |
Common carbon medium plate |
20 mm |
Q235 |
4,527 |
+47 |
681 |
+7 |
Low alloy medium plate |
20 mm |
Q345 |
4,685 |
+13 |
705 |
+2 |
Shipbuilding plate |
16 mm |
CCS A/B |
4,893 |
-30 |
734 |
-4 |
At present, significant differences exist between steel plate prices in the northern and southern regions of China. Some cargoes have been delivered to the Shanghai market at competitive prices of around RMB 4,500/mt ($675/mt).
At the same time, transactions in the domestic market are now at moderate volumes, without any big improvement in end-user demand. Thus, the market is encountering some resistance to the rising trend of prices. In addition, the southern market is expected to receive increasing flows of supplies from the northern regions.
On the bright side, there is no great pressure from market inventories, which have been dropping down slightly. Currently, domestic plate producers are operating at relatively low capacity utilization rates.
In the short term, the macroeconomic environment may constitute the most important factor for the steel market. Under pressure from inflation, it is expected that the Chinese government will to continue to raise the interest rate or the deposit reserve ratio in the coming period, which would exert a negative influence on the domestic steel plate market.