Rebar output among China’s 137 producers including integrated mills and re-rollers grew for the second week by another 1% on week to 3.8 million tonnes in total over September 17-23, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly survey, despite that the domestic rebar price had been under pressure and the market pessimism thickened.
Some of the producers resumed rebar production after having completed the routine maintenance on the rolling line, and the rebar rolling capacity utilization rate among the 137 sampled mills, thus, grew further by 0.8 percentage point on week to 82.5% on average, the survey showed.
The recent rally saw China’s rebar output persist high, or 6.5% higher on year, indicating that most of the mills in the survey were reluctant to trim their production, as the demand from the end-users has been rather stable in the traditional peak season for steel consumption, especially for construction steel, a market source in Shanghai said.
China’s national price of HRB 400 20mm dia rebar, nevertheless, fell to Yuan 3,764/tonne ($552/t) including the 13% VAT as of September 23, or down for the third week by another Yuan 42/t on week, according to Mysteel’s assessments, in reaction to the less-than-expected demand recovery on month.
Steel consumption by the end-users recovered moderately last week, as the weather had been feasible for outdoor construction works, though the daily tonnage was below market expectation, Mysteel Global noted.
Among China’s 237 trading houses posted their daily trading volume of construction steelaveraged 221,767 tonnes/day over September 17-23, or up 3,512 t/d on week, with the products comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil, according to Mysteel’s survey.
Better sales in September than in August saw rebar stocks at China’s 137 mills decline since the start of September, down for the fourth week over the survey period by another 1.1% on week to 3.5 million tonnes, according to Mysteel’s survey.
Table 1: Mysteel Rebar Production Survey by Region on September 16 (Unit: ’000 tonnes)
Table 2: Mysteel Wire Rod Production Survey by Region on September 16 (Unit: ‘000 tonnes)
Table 3: Mysteel Rebar Production Survey by Process on September 16 (Unit: ‘000 tonnes)
Table 4: Mysteel Wire Rod Production Survey by Process on September 16 (Unit: ‘000 tonnes)
Table 5: Mysteel Rebar and Wire Rod Stocks Survey by Region on September 16 (Unit: ‘000 tonnes)
Table 6: Mysteel Rebar and Wire Rod Stocks Survey by Process on September 16 (Unit: ‘000 tonnes)
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
Photo: World Steel
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