Chinese Steel Market Highlights for May’17

Raw material prices like iron ore and coal saw declining in the month of May’17.Major Chinese steelmakers like Baosteel and Wuhan steel slashed flat product prices for June deliveries.However,market sentiments turned weak and dull towards the end of this month amid Dragon Boat Festival in China.

Chinese spot iron ore prices fell sharply in May’17 – Amid dull trade activities, rising iron ore stock at Chinese major ports and slump in steel prices, spot iron ore prices in China witnessed a significant decline in May’17.

Monthly average spot iron ore prices in China fell by USD 10/MT M-o-M from USD 70/MT, CFR China in Apr’17 to USD 60.9/MT, CFR China. In Apr’17, prices registered a fall of USD 17/MT on monthly premises compared to Mar’17. Iron ore stock at Chinese major ports stood at 136.6 MnT as on 26 May’17 which was at 129.6 MnT on 21 Apr’17.

Lump premium has increased marginally this week and is assesed at USD 0.117/DMT, CFR China and Pellet premium stood USD 22.05/DMT, CFR China.

Coking coal prices continues to decline further on excess supply– Coking Coal (Premium HCC) prices have drop down further this week by USD 11/MT W-o-W and are heard in the range of USD 145/MT FoB Australia.Coal Prices went down drastically owing to improved supply from Australia’s Queensland region coupled with little buying activity in China.

Met coke prices has also showed the significant decline of 11%, M-o-M basis in May’17 against Apr’17.Currently met coke prices are hovering in the range of USD 279/MT,FoB China.

Chinese billet export offers witness marginal decline in May’17– Chinese Q235 150*150 mm billet export offers reported a marginal decline of 1% in May’17 against Apr’17.Chinese mills have raised domestic billet export offers in the month of  Apr’17 owing to optimistic sentiments in domestic market. Chinese billet export offers are around USD 420/MT, FoB China. Chinese billet export offers have not been workable in last few months as prices in domestic market remained higher.

China’s flat steel export offers dip down 4% in May’17 – Chinese HRC export offers drop down by 4 % to USD 434/MT in May’17 against USD 451/MT in Apr’17.Notably China’s major flat steel producers – Baosteel, Wuhan Steel slashed flat products prices for June deliveries owing to dull buying activities.Although softening of demand among overseas buyers amid festive season leads to decline in HRC export offers in China. Currently HRC export offers are prevailing in the range of USD 440-450/MT, FoB China. Meanwhile prices of HRC in domestic market are heard in the range of RMB 3,210-3,240/MT (ex-works).

Chinese Re-bar Prices Rises 3% in May’17– Chinese Re-bar export offers reported the hike of 3% to USD 428/MT in May’17 as compared to USD 440/MT in Apr’17.Notably Re-bar export offers have showed the upsurge in prices owing to active domestic demand prevailing in the Chinese market.Current Chinese re-bar export offers for the week is at USD 450-455/MT which is similar against last week.However,domestic Rebar offers registered a marginally correction of RMB 20/MT (USD 3) compared to last week trade offers.

Steel Raw Material & Finished Steel Prices in China

Prices mentioned are on per tonne basis
Source: SteelMint Research