Below is the brief near-term outlook of the five key steel products Mysteel shares on a weekly basis, drawing upon the results of related surveys and communication with market participants.
Rebar & wire rod: The prices of these long steel products may ease further over February 1-5, mainly on the weakening demand, as, for instance, many construction sites have been suspended operations to allow their workers to travel back to their hometowns earlier than usual to avoid the crowds ahead of the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday.
Hot-rolled coil: The HRC price may slide just modestly in the week ending February 5, as most of the traders are not willing to sell off their stocks at lower prices with higher procurement costs while demand has waned too. HRC stocks in China’s 55 cities had been largely stable, down merely 0.2% on week to 2.92 million tonnes as of January 28.
Cold-rolled coil: The price is likely to soften in the week to February 5, mainly due to the earlier breaks in many industrial sectors for the CNY holiday than normal to avoid concentrated travelling in the last few days before the holiday as part of the efforts to curtail the spread of the pandemic.
Medium plate: The price may stand chances of inching up in the first week of February, as demand will not vary much while output will decrease in the next few weeks with mills going on scheduled maintenance
Sections: The price is forecast to spiral up in the week ending February 5, as supply will be constrained as many deliveries will be arriving at the end-users after the CNY holiday, and the Tangshan government in North China’s Hebei has suspended the operations of the local re-rollers since January 31 to improve the air quality.
The price of the Q235 150mm square billet in Tangshan, stayed largely steady at around Yuan 3,800/tonne ($584.6/t) due to the remaining high production costs, and by January 31, it gained Yuan 30/t on week to Yuan 3,860/t.
Written by Yi Xia, xiayi@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
Photo: World Steel Association
Leave a Reply