Posted on 27 Oct 2022
Production of rebars across China in September increased by 17.4% on year to 21.4 million tonnes, according to statistics from the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). This was the first time that the country's rebar output had posted an on-year rise since June 2021, Mysteel Global noted.
Rebar output in September was also higher on-month for the second month, climbing by 11.3% from August, Mysteel Global calculated based on the NBS data.
During the month, a slew of Chinese steel mills including integrated mills and mini-mills had resumed operations or ramped up output on the expectation of recovering demand over September-October, usually peak months for steel consumption, as reported.
The daily trading volume of rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 Chinese trading houses under Mysteel's tracking averaged 180,014 t/d in September, higher by 22.1% or 32,583 t/d on month, though still well below the threshold of 200,000 t/d for this time of year.
Meanwhile, China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of domestic spot steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at an average of Yuan 4,126/tonne ($574/t) including the 13% VAT in September, slipping Yuan 136/t from the prior month's average.
Consequently, the softening domestic rebar prices saw the average profit margin for producing rebar among the 91 Chinese blast-furnace steel mills Mysteel monitors reverse down by Yuan 20/t on month to just Yuan 21/t during September, as reported.
Over January-September, China produced 177.8 million tonnes of rebar, or still down 11.1% on year or accounting for 17.7% of the country's total finished steel output of about 1.01 billion tonnes during the same period. For September alone, rebar contributed to 18.4% of the 116.2 million tonnes of finished steel output, according to NBS.
Source:Mysteel Global
