Rebar prices in China’s spot market have been firming lately in answer to some positive factors emerging in the domestic steel market, with rebar futures prices also showing signs of strengthening in tandem, Mysteel Global noted.
As of February 21, China’s national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a barometer of the country’s steel market dynamics, had risen for a fifth working day to reach Yuan 4,333/tonne ($628/t) including the 13% VAT, higher by Yuan 97/t from February 14, Mysteel’s assessment showed.
“As end-users have been steadily resuming building activities after the Chinese New Year holiday,” observed an industry watcher. “Spot sales of construction steel also exceeded the threshold of 200,000 tonnes/day (on February 20) so it’s clear that market participants generally hold better expectations for a demand revival in March.”
The improved market sentiment saw rebar prices in both the physical and futures markets rise, he added.
On Tuesday, the most-traded rebar contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange for May delivery also grew for the fifth trading day, closing the daytime session at Yuan 4,254/t, jumping by Yuan 248/t from the settlement price on February 14.
Over February 15-21, the daily trading volume of rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 steel trading houses Mysteel tracks nationwide averaged 169,310 t/d, having surged by 57,385 t/d or 51.3% on week.
Meanwhile, data released by the National Bureau of Statistics on February 16 showed that 36 out of the 70 monitored cities nationwide reported on-month increases in new home prices during January, while only 33 cities saw declines.
This marked the first time since September 2021 that the number of cities reporting on-month price rises had outnumbered those witnessing price falls. “This suggests that signs of recovery will likely emerge in the downstream property market soon,” another market source remarked.
Written by Rong Zhang, zhangronga@mysteel.com
Edited by Zhenqi Yang, yangzhenqi@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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