WEEKLY SUMMARY: China’s steel prices rise, sales up

Source：Mysteel               Sep 13, 2021 14:30

ABSTRACT:

China’s steel prices in both spot and futures markets showed signs of continuing strengthening over September 6-10, as steel output curbs had been intensified in many regions so as to help realize lower steel output for the whole year of 2021, while steel demand from traders and end-users had been improving though fluctuation continued, Mysteel Global noted.

Rebar: China’s national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar under Mysteel’s assessment, grew for the second week as of September 10 to its 3.5-month high of Yuan 5,525/tonne ($857/ton) and including the 13% VAT, or up Yuan 168/t on week.

Over September 6-10, the spot trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among China’s 237 steel traders under Mysteel’s tracking went up for the third week, averaging 225,719 tonnes/day, or up another 8,197 t/d or 3.8% on week. 

By September 10, the most-traded rebar January 2022 contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) strengthened for the third consecutive week, up Yuan 259/t from the settlement price on September 3 when closing the daytime trading session at Yuan 5,640/t. The contango against the Shanghai spot rebar price, thus, widened to Yuan 110/t from Yuan 68/t a week earlier.

Billet: As of September 10, the Q235 150mm square billet price in Tangshan of North China’s Hebei also soared for the third week in a row, up Yuan 140/t on week to Yuan 5,200/t EXW and including the VAT, and consumption appeared good, as billet stocks at the 55 local steel re-rollers fell for the third week last week as of September 8, down 102,300 tonnes or 20.1% on week to 406,300 tonnes, both according to Mysteel’s tracking.

HRC: As of September 10, China’s national price of Q235 4.75mm hot-rolled coil (HRC) under Mysteel’s assessment increased for the third successive week, up Yuan 74/t on week to Yuan 5,857/t and including the 13% VAT, partly due to the support from lower HRC stocks at the commercial warehouses in China’s 33 cities under Mysteel’s tracking, which slid for the fourth straight week by 73,500 tonnes on week to 2.78 million tonnes by September 9.

SHFE’s most-traded HRC January 2022 contract strengthened for the third straight week by Yuan 136/t from the settlement price on September 3, closing the daytime trading session of September 10 at Yuan 5,858/t, and its backwardation against the Shanghai spot HRC price narrowed to Yuan 12/t from Yuan 16/t in the prior week.