China’s steel prices refreshed the highest so far this year as of April 2, a working weekend day in lieu of off-days during the Qingming Festival national holiday over April 3-5. However, steel demand and the market sentiment were still dampened by the country’s elevated fight against the COVID-19, especially in Shanghai, a key steel trading and consumption center in East China.
Meanwhile, the Q235 150mm square billet price in Tangshan, China’s top steel-producing hub in North China’s Hebei province, also stood firmly at its intra-year high of Yuan 4,860/t EXW and including the VAT as of April 2.
On Saturday, China’s national average HRB400E 20mm dia rebar price climbed to Yuan 5,145/tonne ($808.4/t) including 13% VAT, after rising for the third consecutive working day by another Yuan 40/t on day.
China’s major steel prices were supported by high raw material prices and a spate of stimulus policies issued by Beijing, even though the frequent virus outbreaks had been impeding the country’s steel consumption and logistics services, market sources noted.
In Shanghai, which is home to around 25 million of residents and a key steel-trading hub in China, the city government has introduced lockdowns since March 28, but it still saw increasing coronavirus cases as of April 5.
Mysteel’s survey of the trading volume across 247 Chinese steel trading houses indicated the pandemic’s impact on the domestic steel trading. By April 2, the trading volume of rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil totaled 175,745 tonnes/day, down 11.9% on day, or down 39% on year, with the volume in East China declining 24.6% on day or 49% on year to only 75,722 t/d.
Written by Olivia Zhang, zhangwd@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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