Posted on 11 Oct 2022
Rebar production among the 137 Chinese steel producers under Mysteel's weekly survey declined for the second week during September 29-October 5, falling by 0.5% or 15,100 tonnes on week to reach a one-month low of 3.01 million tonnes. Behind the slide in rebar output during the country's National Day holiday (over October 1-7) was the fact that many mini-mills halted production to conduct maintenance due to their continuing margin losses, sources said.
During the survey period, both rebar rolling capacity utilization and the operational rates among these surveyed producers decreased, with the former dipping for the second week by a minor 0.3 percentage point to 66%, and the latter easing for the third week by another 2 percentage points to 49.2%, according to Mysteel's data.
China's steel market slowed to a halt during the holiday break and spot trading almost stalled, Mysteel Global notes. Consequently, rebar inventories at the 137 surveyed producers reversed up by 181,700 tonnes or 9.2% on week to 2.2 million tonnes as of October 7, while the tonnage at commercial warehouses in the 35 cities Mysteel samples also reversed up by 241,000 tonnes or 5.3% during the same period to about 4.8 million tonnes.
Spot finished-steel prices showed signs of firming after the holiday. The country's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar for example, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 4,195/tonne ($589/t) including the 13% VAT as of October 9, or up Yuan 25/t from that on September 30. October 8 and 9 were both compensatory working days in China for the holidays.
Meanwhile, the spot trading volume of construction steel including rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 Chinese steel trading houses Mysteel follows averaged 167,123 tonnes/day for the two trading days of October 8 and October 9.
Source:Mysteel Global
