Posted on 23 Aug 2022
Shagang Group, China's largest privately-owned producer in East China's Jiangsu province, has decided to roll over the list prices of all its major long steel products for sales over August 21-31, according to the company's pricing policy released on Sunday. Market sources suggested Shagang's decision to hold prices reflects sliding sales in the spot market and rangebound longs prices.
Shagang releases its long steel prices every ten days, and Sunday's announcement marks the third time in succession that the Chinese steel giant has kept its longs prices unchanged for a ten-day sales period, Mysteel Global notes.
As of August 19, China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 4,236/tonne ($620/t) including the 13% VAT, lower by Yuan 47/t from August 10.
The daily trading volume of rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 trading houses Mysteel samples averaged 142,488 tonnes/day in mid-August, down 12,174 tonnes/day or 7.9% from the prior ten days.
"Personally, I feel that the retreat in prices has been mainly prompted by the feeble demand – where sales are well short of market expectations," the market watcher remarked, noting that softening steel futures prices had also played a part.
Meanwhile, another industry insider pointed out that high temperatures are forecast to cool from late August and that the caseload of COVID-19 infections may ease as well, both of which are conducive to giving outdoor building activity a welcome boost.
Regarding its products for August 21-31 sales, Shagang's HRB400 16-25mm dia rebar price remains at Yuan 4,500/t, its HPB300 6-10mm high-speed wire rod price stays at Yuan 4,510/t, and HRB400 8-10mm bar-in-coil holds steady at Yuan 4,600/t, all in terms of EXW and including the 13% VAT, according to the release.
Source:Mysteel Global
