Below is the brief near-term outlook for five key steel products Mysteel shares on a weekly basis, drawing upon the results of related surveys and communication with Chinese market participants.
Rebar & wire rod: The prices of two long steel items may be range-bound over March 4-8, with both demand and production recovering gradually, while their inventories may mount further though at a slow pace.
Hot-rolled coil: This price is likely to fluctuate in the week ending March 8, pressured by its high stocks level. A market insider in North China said stocks of hot-rolled coil (HRC) have increased substantially in the local market, and demand picks up slowly.
As of February 29, HRC stocks at commercial warehouses in the 33 Chinese cities under Mysteel tracking trended upwards for the eighth week in a row, up 3.1% or 101,800 tonnes on week to 3.4 million tonnes, the highest since May 2020.
Cold-rolled coil: This price may be mildly range-bound in the week through March 8. Many traders see their stocks of cold-rolled coils at hand remain high, and demand from end-users has been recovering slowly, leading to their cautious stance towards the near-term market outlook.
Medium plate: This price is estimated to be slightly volatile over March 4-8. A South China’s Guangdong-based sources said that though several mills decide to scale back production, there is still a jittery sentiment among many participants due to the weak consumption of plates from end-users.
Sections: The sections’ prices may have some room to rise over March 4-8, depending on the resilience of demand from end-users. On the other hand, mills’ output of sections may show slight inclines in March. An analyst said the growth in production has been weaker than expected so far, and the build-up in retail stocks is not fast as well.
Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Daily and BigMint.