On June 16, China’s national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar hit a nearly 16-month low of Yuan 4,653/tonne ($694.6/t) including the 13% VAT, down for the fifth working day by another Yuan 31/t, while spot sales of construction steel including rebar among 237 Chinese trading houses reversed from just one day of recovery, down by 18.9% on day, both according to Mysteel’s assessment.
On Thursday, the daily trading volume of construction steel also comprising wire rod and bar-in-coil among the surveyed traders fell by 27,493 tonnes/day on day to 117,597 t/d, or having hit a nearly four-month low.
Many end-users took on a cautious stance of buying amid the annual rainy season in southern China, while traders opted to offload some stocks to lower the risks recently, as June is traditionally a slack consumption period for steel consumption.
Moreover, the US Federal Reserve’s decision to raise its benchmark interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point suggested weaker steel demand from overseas in the long run. All these factors had dampened the market sentiment and dragged down spot sales of construction steel, market sources shared.
Also on Thursday, the most-traded October rebar contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange slumped by Yuan 88/t or 1.9% from the settlement price of June 15 to close at Yuan 4,506/t when the daytime session ended.
On the same day, the Tangshan Q235 150mm square billet price in North China’s Hebei province under Mysteel’s assessment stayed unchanged for the third day at Yuan 4,380/t EXW and including the 13% VAT.
Written by Villanelle Xia, xiayi@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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