In the past week, the Chinese medium plate market saw a slowdown in its rising trend as compared to the previous week. As of April 18, average medium plate prices in the main markets in China are as follows:
Product name |
Specification |
Category |
Average price (RMB/mt) |
Weekly change (RMB/mt) |
Price |
Weekly change ($/mt) |
Common carbon medium plate |
20 mm |
Q235 |
4,963 |
+16 |
757 |
+2 |
Low alloy medium plate |
20 mm |
Q345 |
5,075 |
+20 |
774 |
+3 |
16 mm |
CCS A/B |
5,420 |
+3 |
826 |
+0.45 |
The increases in domestic hot rolled coil (HRC) prices have been providing support for higher medium plate prices. As of April 15, aggregate inventory in the main Chinese plate markets came to 1.55876 million mt, down 6,270 mt week on week.
The further tightening of monetary policy by the Chinese authorities (e.g. the deposit reserve requirement ratio will increase by 0.25 percentage points as of April 21) has caused Chinese traders to be more willing to sell material, in order to alleviate the financial pressure they face.
Summing up, many opposing factors are in play in the Chinese medium plate market. Taking costs into consideration, it is highly unlikely that medium plate prices will see any sharp upward or downward movements in late April.