Mysteel Global: The quantity of ferrous scrap recycled from construction sites throughout China has rebounded in February, as some sites have resumed operations after the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday breaks, Mysteel Global has learned. The overall supply of steel scrap from construction sites remains rather low, however.
Mysteel’s regular tracking showed that the volume of demolition steel scrap collected by the 105 domestic steel scrap recycling companies during February 7-13, the second week post the official CNY holiday, increased by 4,165 tonnes on week to reach 9,595 tonnes, but the tonnage was still lower by a significant 43.1% compared with the same period after last year’s CNY break.
The inventories of demolition steel scrap held by these 105 recyclers slid to 35,295 tonnes as of February 13, the lowest level since Mysteel commenced this survey in September 2022.
“Scrap processors find it difficult collecting scrap materials from construction sites because many sites have yet to resume normal operations due to the lack of funds,” a market watcher based in Shanghai said.
Among the 13,532 building sites under Mysteel’s survey across China, only around 23.5% had restarted operations by February 13, much lower than the 39.9% recorded for the same time after last year’s CNY.
“The funding supply for building sites is below expectations in many regions, and some projects were facing shortages of initial capitals,” the market watcher noted.
This led to slow progress of domestic demolition and construction projects and low generation of demolition steel scrap accordingly, Mysteel’s survey showed.
On the other hand, scrap processors have been actively selling their scrap materials to steel mills with steady demand for scrap. This is likely to underpin the prices of demolition steel scrap in the coming weeks.
Mysteel assessed the national price of rebar cuttings- chopped sections of construction steel bars from demolished buildings – at Yuan 2,348/tonne ($322.5/t) excluding the 13% VAT as of February 18, largely unchanged in the past month.
Note: This article has been written in accordance with a content exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and BigMint.
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