Below is the brief near-term outlook for five key steel products Mysteel shares on a weekly basis, drawing upon the results of related surveys and communication with Chinese market participants.
Rebar, wire rod: Prices of the two long steel products are expected to stabilise at high levels over 13-17 May. Inventories of these long steel items continue with the downtrend, while the imbalance between production and demand may increase slightly.
Hot-rolled coil: This price is likely to be volatile in the week ending 17 May, with high steelmaking raw material costs persisting and demand from end-users anticipated to recover.
Cold-rolled coil: This price may soften in the week through 17 May, as end-users are not inclined to replenish cold-rolled coils in large quantities and prefer to purchase on a need-to basis, while the contradiction between output and demand still exists.
Mysteel predicts that production of cold-rolled coils among 29 mills nationwide will fall slightly from the previous week to reach 830,000-840,000 tonnes (t) this week as a few mills in East China may conduct maintenance works.
Medium plate: This price is estimated to be narrowly rangebound over 13-17 May. A source in Guangzhou in South China’s Guangdong province said the overall demand in the local market would remain weak and traders may be keen to sell their plate stocks at hand.
Sections: The sections’ prices may weaken marginally over 13-17 May, with output staying at high levels, while demand may hardly rise substantially as most end-users are more likely to stand on the sidelines.
Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between MySteel Global and BigMint.