During the week ending November 18, average prices of common carbon medium and low ally medium plate in the Chinese domestic market have moved up, while transaction activity in the overall steel plate market has been at low levels. Average steel plate prices in China are presented in the table below.
Product name |
Specification |
Category |
Average Price (RMB/mt) |
Weekly change (RMB/mt) |
Price ($/mt) |
Weekly change ($/mt) |
Common carbon medium plate |
20 mm |
Q235 |
3,713 |
+40 |
530 |
+5 |
Low alloy medium plate |
20 mm |
Q345 |
3,865 |
+20 |
552 |
+2 |
Shipbuilding plate |
20 mm |
CCS A/B |
4,336 |
-13 |
619 |
-3 |
13 percent VAT is included in all prices and all prices are ex-warehouse.
During the given week, rebar futures prices and HRC futures prices at Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) have been up 5.4 percent and 4.5 percent compared to that recorded on November 11, reaching RMB 3,556/mt ($508/mt) and RMB 3,471/mt($495.9/mt), exerting a positive impact on steel plate market.
There were few steel plate resources arriving at the market, resulting in supply shortage in spot market, providing certain support to its prices. Meanwhile, China's central bank on November 15 initiated the second phase of a targeted reserve requirement ratio (RRR) cut for some city commercial banks and conducted the medium-term lending facility (MLF) to inject liquidity into the market, boosting market players’ sentiments. It is expected that steel plate prices in the Chinese domestic market will move sideways in the coming week.
$1 = RMB 7.004