During the week ending August 17, the Chinese domestic cold rolled coil (CRC) market has continued its rising trend, while transaction activity in the overall market has been better than in the previous week and is now at medium levels. Average cold rolled product prices in the local Chinese market are presented in the table below.
During the given week, despite some recent downward corrections, ferrous metal futures prices in China are still moving in an overall upward direction, exerting a positive impact on local CRC prices. Meanwhile, major Chinese steelmakers Wuhan Iron and Steel Group and Baosteel have issued their ex-works prices for September delivery, raising their CRC prices by RMB 100/mt ($15/mt), boosting sentiment in the domestic CRC market. In addition, with the approach of September and October which constitute the peak season for business, downstream users and traders will be seeking to build up some inventories, which will also provide support for the CRC market. However, so far real demand has not indicated any significant improvements, and so the price increases already observed are based on future expectations for the market. If inventory levels move up sharply, the rising trend is not likely to continue. It is expected that CRC prices in the Chinese domestic market will move sideways in the coming week.
Product name | Spec. | Category | City | Steel plant/origin | Price (RMB/mt) | Price ($/mt) | Weekly change (RMB/mt) |
Thin CRC | 1.0 mm x 1,250 mm x C | ST12 | Shanghai | MaSteel | 3,250 | 490 | ↑50 |
Tianjin | Tangshan Steel | 3,400 | 513 | ↑250 | |||
Lecong | MaSteel | 3,380 | 510 | ↑80 | |||
Average | - | 3,343 | 504 | ↑127 | |||
Thin CRS | 1.0 mm x 1,250mm x 2,500 mm | ST12 | Shanghai | Anshan Steel | 3,370 | 508 | ↑100 |
Tianjin | Anshan Steel | 3,660 | 552 | ↑160 | |||
Lecong | Anshan Steel | 3,530 | 532 | ↑80 | |||
Average | - | 3,520 | 531 | ↑113 |
17 percent VAT is included in all prices and all prices are ex-warehouse.
$1 = 6.63 RMB