Shagang Jiangsu Group in China’s eastern region has hiked rebar prices by CNY300/mt ($45/mt) for mid-November deliveries but kept its HRC and plate prices unchanged. The demand for both rebar and wire rod is strong in the Chinese market, pushing prices up CNY300/mt from early November. Demand is likely to stay firm as the country’s economy grows.
Long steel
Shagang Steel offers rebar (HRB400,16-25 mm) at CNY4,250/mt ($642/mt) ex-works for deliveries till Nov 20 in the spot market including discount. The company raised prices for wire rod (HPB300, 8mm) by CNY300/mt to CNY4,510/mt ($683/mt) ex-works. All these prices are inclusive of 13pc VAT. Healthy demand for long products and limited availability has pushed rebar prices to a year’s high in China.
Chinese construction steel inventories dropped by 12.6pc in the prior week, according to CISA. Meanwhile, traders’ stocks of rebar and wire rod at 40 major cities were reduced by 18-22pc from the prior month.
| Shagang Steel’s retail prices for mid-November | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Products | Grade | CNY/mt | Change from early-Nov |
| Rebar | HRB400 | 4370 | 300 |
| HRB500 | 4670 | 300 | |
| Rebar wire rod | HRB400 | 4650 | 300 |
| Wire | HPB300 | 4610 | 300 |
| 45-65# | 4580 | 100 | |
| 30MnSi | 4700 | 100 | |
| SWRH82B | 4570 | 100 | |
| Hot rolled coil | Q235B | 4380 | 0 |
| Q355B | 4510 | 0 | |
| SPHC | 4390 | 0 | |
| Wide plate | Q235B | 4500 | 0 |
Flat steel
The retail price of HRC (Q235B) is kept unchanged at CNY4,380/mt ($661/mt) ex-works since October-end. CRC prices too have remained stable since 10 days. Taking a cue from Shagang, many other steelmakers including the Zenith group, Yonggang Group, have raised prices.
Billet prices
Billet prices are at 18-month high in China. Prices for Q235 150mm square billets were CNY3,580/mt ex-Tangshan works including VAT. Steelmakers expect prices to move up further. In the billet imports market, prices jumped by $15-18/mt from the prior trades to $475/mt cfr China while HRC export prices rose to $545-565/mt fob China.
Domestic scrap
Higher billet prices have spiked both demand and prices of ferrous scrap in the domestic market. Shagang, which is EAF-route steelmaker, had raised its steel scrap procurement price, effective Nov 5, by CNY100/mt ($14.7/mt) to CNY2,680-2,750/mt delivered yard for HMS 6-10mm thickness.
($1=CNY6.62)