After a short-lived dip in the Chinese longs market in the last half of the previous week, at the start of the past week (March 23-29) major local mills such as Shagang Steel and Hebei Steel significantly raised their offers, thereby once again pushing up market prices.
Product |
Specification |
Category |
Average Price (RMB/mt) |
Price ($/mt) |
Weekly change ($/mt) |
6.5 mm |
Q235 |
4,390 |
644 |
+26 |
|
20 mm |
HRB 335 |
4,287 |
629 |
+25 |
|
20 mm |
HRB 400 |
4,413 |
647 |
+22 |
In China's three main steel markets, i.e., Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou, the prices of Q235 grade 6.5 mm size high speed wire rod now respectively stand at RMB 4,340/mt ($636/mt), RMB 4,400/mt ($645/mt) and RMB 4,430/mt ($650/mt), with HRB 335 grade 20 mm rebar prices respectively at RMB 4,050/mt ($594/mt), RMB 4,450/mt ($652/mt) and RMB 4,360/mt ($639/mt). Meanwhile, HRB 400 grade 20 mm rebar is priced at RMB 4,120/mt ($604/mt), RMB 4,540/mt ($666/mt) and RMB 4,580/mt ($672/mt) in the above respective markets. All prices are ex-mill, including 17 percent VAT.
The domestic mills supplied the main impetus for the upward trend in the Chinese longs market over the past week, with domestic steel producers Shagang Steel and Hebei Steel both raising their construction steel prices by RMB 250/mt ($37/mt). As a result, market prices of wire rod and rebar in China have both increased by a range of RMB 100-300/mt ($15-44/mt) during the past week. Meanwhile, Baosteel's upward adjustment of RMB 200-300/mt ($29-44/mt) for its rolled steel products in its latest price list has imparted a general rising momentum to the domestic steel industry.
Chinese rebar inventory levels have continued to slide down in the past week, but at a more rapid pace than in the previous week. Compared to the end of the previous week aggregate rebar inventory in China's main cities decreased by 175,900 mt or 2.43 percent, whereas a year-on-year increase of 2.988 million mt was registered.
The impact of the iron ore price talks on the Chinese steel industry has been reflected as an uptrend in steel prices. Whether this uptrend will continue or not depends largely on improvements in demand and sales.