China’s national price of HRB400 20mm dia rebar hit a new high since December 23 2019 after increasing for the seventh consecutive working day. It increased Yuan 13/tonne ($1.9/t) on day and hit Yuan 3,865/t including the 13% VAT on August 6. It was mainly thanks to the prevalent optimistic expectation of a robust demand this fall, although some insiders showed worries over the steady price increments.
On Thursday, the trading volume of steel for construction comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil totalled 220,354 tonnes/day, up another 5,111 tonnes or 2.4% on day, according to Mysteel’s survey across 237 Chinese steel traders nationwide. The trading volume had stayed above the active trading threshold of 200,000 t/d over the past few weekdays, Mysteel Global noted.
Actual steel demand had been picking up since the wet season came to an end in late July. However, much of the persistent high trading activities also included “traders’ speculative buying activities” and the actual purchases from end-users “may not be as strong (as many have expected),” a Shanghai-based steel analyst observed.
On the same day, the Q235 150mm square billet price in Tangshan, North China, a representative price for China’s semi-finished steel, also hit a nine-month high of Yuan 3,460/tonne EXW and including the VAT, after rising another Yuan 20/t on day, according to Mysteel assessment.
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
Photo: World Steel
Leave a Reply