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 the Chinese market participants. China will be celebrating the National Day holiday over October 1-7.
Rebar & wire rod: The prices of these longs may strengthen over September 27-30, as the supply is likely to decrease further with the ongoing production curbs in many part of China including Shandong, Jiangsu, Guangxi and Guangdong, and some mills Hebei, Anhui and Northeast China have had to trim output because of power rationing.
As of September 23, rebar stocks at the commercial warehouses of China’s 132 cities fell for the eighth consecutive week and at a faster pace of 3.3% on week to a total of 10.3 million tonnes.
Hot-rolled coil: This price may lose some steam in the week ending September 30, as end-users have opted to procure only sufficiently for immediate needs and power rationing on some manufacturers in some parts of China may further dampen the demand.
As of September 23, HRC stocks in the commercial warehouses of China’s 55 cities stayed largely unchanged despite lower output, down but by just 4,800 tonnes on week to 4 million tonnes.
Cold-rolled coil: The price may ease in the week to September 30, as many traders, with high stocks while tightness in cash flow, may be willing to sell lower, especially when some end-users have requested for postponing deliveries with power rationing on them, indicating demand to subside further.
Medium plate: The price may be narrowly rangebound over September 27-30, as spot trading volume in the spot sales market has been lukewarm , with traders rather inactive in buying on noting the rather high prices.
Sections: The price is expected to grow in the week ending September 30, mainly underpinned by limited supply as well as the remaining resilience of the billet price, even though finished steel prices such as rebar have overtaken billet in the growth recently.
As of September 24, the price of the Q235 150mm square billet in Tangshan, North China’s Hebei province, fell from four weeks of increases, down Yuan 40/tonne ($6.2/t) on week to Yuan 5,170/t EXW including the 13% VAT.
Written by Villanelle Xia, xiayi@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.
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