Ex-China cold rolled coil (CRC) prices have seen a slight decrease over the past week following lower prices for local CRC and more declines in HRC futures prices.
More specifically, ex-China CRC offer prices from mills have been at $545-565/mt FOB this week, decreasing by $5/mt on the lower end of the range week on week, while the tradable levels for ex-China CRC have been heard at 545-555/mt FOB, the same as last week.
During the given week, HRC futures prices have moved down, exerting a negative impact on CRC prices in the spot market. Meanwhile, CRC producers’ capacity utilization rates have indicated rises, resulting in the increasing outputs, also contributing to the rises in inventories, weakening the support for CRC prices. Demand for CRC from downstream users has not been as good as expected, while some market players still expect stock replenishments since the National Day holiday (October 1-8) is drawer closer. It is expected that CRC prices in the Chinese domestic market will fluctuate within a limited range in the coming week.
Average domestic 1.0 mm cold rolled coil spot prices in China are at RMB 3,540/mt ($498.6/mt) ex-warehouse, decreasing by RMB 13/mt ($1.8/mt) week on week, according to SteelOrbis’ information.
As of September 24, HRC futures at Shanghai Futures Exchange are standing at RMB 3,357/mt ($477.5/mt), decreasing by RMB 33/mt ($4.6/mt) or 0.97 percent since September 17, while rising by 0.24 percent compared to the previous trading day, September 23.
$1 = RMB 7.1077