Ex-China rebar export situation

Currently in China's export market for rebar, domestic production boron-added BS rebar is priced at around $450/mt FOB, while vanadium-added rebar is offered by one first-tier mill at $465/mt FOB. There are not many Chinese mills involved in alloy rebar production at present for two primary reasons: first, no firm orders are being placed in reflection of the weak state of demand; second, regardless of the narrowing gap with the international price level, the Chinese prices, though closer, are still not competitive enough. The export prices of neighbouring countries like Taiwan, Japan and South Korea are still lower, even though their prices rallied over the past few weeks on the back of rising scrap prices. It is still not clear if the situation will develop further and finally lead to a resumption of Chinese rebar export activity. However, there appears to be only a slim possibility of this happening in the short term, especially as the local Chinese longs market is showing a positive performance at the moment, which will prevent China's export prices from dropping further. On the other hand, the price hike in the Far East still needs to be accepted by the market.