China’s third largest flat steel major, Baoshan Iron & Steel has increased its HRC/CRC prices for Feb’16 & Mar’16 shipments indicating improvement in Chinese domestic steel demand.
As reported, the company has increased its HRC prices by RMB 150/MT (USD 22/MT), plates prices by RMB 100 (USD 15/MT) and CRC prices by RMB 100-120/MT (USD 15-10/MT) for February deliveries.
However for March deliveries, it has kept HRC and plate prices unchanged whereas CRC prices will observe a hike of RMB 80/MT (USD 12/MT).
Thus the effective rate in Feb’16 for HRC (5.5 mm) will be RMB 3,342/MT (USD 507/MT), for plates (14-20 mm) it will be RMB 2,300/MT (USD 349/MT) and for CRC it will be RMB 4,006/MT (USD 607/MT).
The HRC and plates prices will remain same in the month of Mar’16. While CRC prices will be at RMB 4,086/MT (USD 620/MT). Baosteel prices usually set the price-trend of overall Chinese steel market.
Chinese flat products export offers have increased in the range of USD 10-40/MT with the start of Jan’16 majorly owing to improved domestic demand and increased semi-finished (billet) prices.
However today, SteelMint has heard that domestic HRC prices in China have fallen once again amid weak buying sentiments and price rally is believed to come to an end.
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