China: Construction steel demand to stay stable in Aug’25

• New building starts likely to offset recent slowdown
• Negative sentiment fading, but many buyers stay wary

Mysteel: China’s demand for construction steel is expected to remain stable overall in August, supported by the launch of new projects, according to Mysteel’s latest monthly survey. New building starts may partially offset the disruptions caused to outdoor construction by adverse weather conditions recently.

The prediction is based on actual volumes of construction steel products bought by domestic end-users in July and their purchase plans for this month.

Mysteel’s regular tracking of over 200 domestic construction enterprises showed that they purchased a total of 5.62 million tonnes (mnt) of construction steel products in July, down by 1.6% m-o-m and lower by 2.6% from their planned amount.

For this month, their planned buying volume is estimated at 5.8 mnt, marking an increase of 3.2% from their actual purchases during the previous month, the findings showed.

Although the launch of new projects may boost domestic steel demand, any increase this month will be limited, as August is generally a poor month for steel consumption, with the continued impact of high temperatures and frequent heavy rains in most regions of the country, Mysteel Global noted.

China’s construction steel sales have shown signs of improvement so far this month. Over 1-12 August, the daily trading volume of rebars, wire rods, and bars-in-coil among the 237 trading houses nationwide under Mysteel’s regular tracking averaged 104,366 t/day, higher by 2,133 t/d or 2.1% compared with the average for July.

Negative sentiment in China’s steel market has eased significantly. However, many steel users remain cautious, purchasing only to meet their immediate needs while keeping their inventories at a low level, given the ongoing uncertainty in the domestic steel market.

China’s finished steel prices have been range-bound so far this month, with the national price of HRB400E 20-mm dia rebar, a bellwether of domestic steel-market sentiment under Mysteel’s assessment, reaching RMB 3,427/tonne (t) ($478/t), including 13% VAT, on 12 August, rising by just RMB 20/t from the end of July.

Note: This article is published in accordance with a content exchange agreement between BigMint and Mysteel.