On March 3, China’s national price of HRB400 20mm dia rebar rebounded strongly after two days of slight declines, having surged by Yuan 98/tonne ($15.2/t) on day to its three-year high of Yuan 4,774/t and including the 13% VAT, though spot sales of construction steel including rebar eased 8.6% on day on Wednesday, according to Mysteel’s surveys.
On March 3, the daily trading volume of construction steel including also wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 Chinese steel trading houses shed 17,001 tonnes/day to 179,875 t/d, according to Mysteel’s assessment, which was still a rather healthy volume in March, a month of robust steel consumption in China.
The strong performance in rebar price had to with the strengthening in the Tangshan Q235 150mm square billet price in North China’s Hebei province that soared Yuan 140/t on day to Yuan 4,410/t EXW including the VAT, according to Mysteel’s tracking, as the local authority intensified the curbing on steel mills’ operations with the heavy air pollution forecast over March 3-5.
The ports in Tangshan have also banned trucking over 2000 (Beijing time) on March 3 until 0800 on March 6.
The most-traded May rebar contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE), in reaction to the physical market, jerked up Yuan 180/t or 3.9% from the settlement price of the previous day to close the daytime session of March 3 at Yuan 4,842/t.
Written by Rong Zhang, zhangronga@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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