Over the past week China's domestic long products market has in general moved up on a fluctuating trend, with prices first rising up before sliding down by a smaller margin in the latter part of the week.
Product name | Specification | Category | Average price (RMB/mt) | Price ($/mt) | Weekly change (RMB/mt) |
20 mm | HRB 335 | 3,670 | 538 | +40 | |
20 mm | HRB 400 | 3,800 | 557 | +30 | |
Wire rod | 6.5 mm | Q235 | 3,590 | 526 | +20 |
During the first half of the past week, the longs market in eastern China continued to rise under the influence of the increases in the steel futures market and also due to Shagang's upward adjustment of its ex-factory prices for mid-November. However, in the context of weakened demand and the slack trading performance, long product prices indicated a certain softness in eastern China in the remaining days of the week.
Stimulated by the market ascension in eastern China, most leading southern-based mills have announced successive upward adjustments to their ex-factory prices, thus pushing up the overall market prices in the south during the past week. Meanwhile, brisk commercial activity was seen in the market in the south during the first half of the week; however, due to the softening observed in market prices and the bad weather conditions, the trading performance gradually became weaker in the second half of the week.
In Beijing and Tianjin, although the market registered a minor rise at the beginning of the week, long product prices subsequently began to decrease under the impact of the strong snowfalls in Hebei Province.
On the raw materials side, domestic prices of pig iron moved steadily up in the past week; meanwhile, the scrap market remained on a positive trend, and billet quotations in the domestic market climbed up by RMB 20-100/mt.
The Chinese construction steel market has been moving up on a fluctuating trend for the past three weeks, with strong support coming from increased raw material prices and the upward adjustments made to ex-factory prices. On the other hand, with the arrival of very cold weather, most northern regions have been struggling with heavy snowfalls; at the same time, southern China has been experiencing rainy weather. Such weather conditions have started to exert a significant impact on overall market demand. Generally speaking, China's domestic long products market is likely to see moderate fluctuations in the coming week.