Posted on 12 Aug 2022
Shagang Group (Shagang), China's largest privately-owned steelmaker headquartered in East China's Jiangsu, has decided to keep its list prices of major long steel products unchanged for sales over August 11-20, according to the company's latest pricing policy announced on Thursday. Shagang has rolled over the list prices of its longs for two consecutive 10-day sales periods, Mysteel Global noted.
With the latest pricing policy, Shagang's HRB400 16-25mm rebar is still priced at Yuan 4,500/tonne ($668/t), HPB300 6-10mm high-speed wire rod at Yuan 4,510/t, and HRB400 8-10mm bar-in-coil at Yuan 4,600/t, all in terms of EXW and including the 13% VAT, the company release showed.
"In the near term, Chinese steel market is still in the off-season for consumption and lacks any strong impetus to release demand in a consistent manner," said a Shanghai-based analyst. "Moreover, mills' production has gradually been lifted on improving profit margins, which may also weigh on steel prices in turn," he added.
Chinese steel demand is largely constrained by the high temperatures across many parts of the country, and spot steel sales have showed signs of shrinking.
For example, in early August, the daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among 237 Chinese trading houses under Mysteel's survey eased by 11,526 tonnes/day or 6.9% from the previous 10 days to just 154,662 t/d on average.
As of August 10, the HRB400E 20mm dia rebar price in Shanghai – a major market for Shagang's steel products – was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 4,170/t including the 13% VAT, up another Yuan 120/t from that on July 29. But the price was still Yuan 330/t lower than Shagang's corresponding rebar list price, Mysteel Global noted.
Shagang, which is also the largest electric-arc-furnace producer in China, is now paying Yuan 3,070-3,130/t for domestically-sourced HMS grade scrap including the delivery cost and the 13% VAT, and its scrap steel procurement prices have been lifted for the third time this month, as Mysteel Global reported.
Source:Mysteel Global
