China’s largest EAF steelmaker, Jiangsu Shagang Group, has announced a sharp hike in its scrap purchase prices for the first time in Sept’21, after three continuous price cuts in Aug’21. The steel producer has raised its scrap buying prices by RMB 80/tonne (t) ($12/t) for all grades, effective 3 Sept, sources confirmed.
After the latest round of revision, prices of HMS (6-10 mm) stand at RMB 3,780/t ($585), inclusive of 13% VAT, delivered to headquarters. The increase in prices was due to limited inventories and tight scrap resources at the steelworks. However, demand has been consistently firm, according to sources.
Market highlights
- Scrap stocks at Chinese yards dip: Stocks of processed and unprocessed steel scrap held by scrapyards in China went down by 4.6% m-o-m after two months of rising in August. Slower recycling activities in the market along with the dealers’ faster pace of delivering scrap to mills led to a decrease in stocks, as per a Mysteel report. Meanwhile, in August, rains and hot weather, as well as the resurgence of Covid-19 cases across the country, had largely disrupted steel scrap collecting and recycling activities.
- Chinese domestic billet prices rise: Steel billet prices in China’s Tangshan increased to RMB 5,020/t ($777/t), inclusive of 13% VAT, on 2 Sep’21. However, trading in billets remained stable w-o-w.
- Shagang rolls over long steel prices for early-Sept: Chinese steelmaker Jiangsu Shagang Group has kept its construction steel prices unchanged for domestic sales, effective over 1-10 Sept’21. Current offers for re-bar of 16-25 mm are at RMB 5,350/t ($824/t), wire rods of 6.5 mm at RMB 5,710/t ($880/t) and coiled rebar (8-10mm) at RMB 5,700/t ($878/t). All prices are ex-mill, including taxes.
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