Chinese steel mills have lowered their finished long steel prices amid high inventories at hand, and a weaker demand during the holiday lull. Major steel mills are focused on sales ahead of the Lunar holidays by lowering their prices in the domestic and export markets.
Despite the short-term orange alert issued by the Chinese government to curb steel production in Tangshan and Shandong provinces for environmental reasons, spot finished flat prices remained flat.
Shagang Steel’s Jiangsu steel mill kept its prices for rebar and wire rod unchanged for January 1-10 deliveries. The company offered rebar HRB400 of 16-25mm diameter at CNY3,960/mt ($558/mt), for early Jan deliveries, effective from Wednesday. The steelmaker held its wire rod prices unchanged at RMB3,970/mt including the local taxes.
After Shagang, Yonggang steel lowered rebar & wire rod prices by RMB60/mt from its previous prices for December deliveries. Rebar is priced at RMB3,890/mt for early January deliveries, while the company kept wire rod price at RMB3,990/mt inclusive of local taxes (VAT).
Zenith steel too lowered its rebar and wire rod prices by RMB80/mt from its previous prices. For deliveries Jan 1-10, rebar is priced at RMB3,850/mt and RMB3,940/mt, respectively.
Chinese ferrous scrap prices remained lower on declining finished steel prices. Shagang Steel held prices unchanged. Scrap grade #1 HMS was at RMB2,780/mt and #3 HMS was priced at around RMB2,700/mt, delivered to the Jiangsu mill in Zhangjiagang city.