Ex-China cold rolled coil (CRC) prices have moved up over the past week amid a slight recovery of local demand and the increased strength of the yuan against the US dollar, though sentiments in the HRC futures market have remained weak.
More specifically, ex-China CRC offer prices from mills are at $540-555/mt FOB this week, increasing by $5-10/mt week on week, while the tradable levels for ex-China CRC have been heard at $535-540/mt FOB, up by $10/mt week on week.
During the given period, CRC prices in the Chinese domestic market have edged up slightly as downstream users have resumed production activities. However, inventories have been at relatively high levels, exerting a negative impact on CRC prices. The late Chinese New Year holiday this year caused downstream users to build up stocks in January, which shifted post-holiday consumption forward to February, and so demand for CRC in March may not be as good as market players expected.
The weakening of the boost from the home appliance trade-in policy, combined with the traditional off-season for terminal sales, has led distributors to focus primarily on destocking, directly dampening home appliance manufacturers' demand for CRC.
Average domestic 1.0 mm cold rolled coil spot prices in China are at RMB 3,500/mt ($506.5/mt) ex-warehouse, rising by RMB 3/mt ($0.4/mt) week on week, according to SteelOrbis’ information.
As of March 4, HRC futures at Shanghai Futures Exchange are standing at RMB 3,212/mt ($467/mt), decreasing by RMB 24/mt ($3.5/mt) or 0.7 percent since February 25, while remaining stable compared to the previous trading day, March 3.
$1 = RMB 6.9124
