Posted on 20 Dec 2022
Rebar production among the 137 Chinese steelmakers sampled by Mysteel declined over December 8-14 after the prior week's brief recovery, sliding 0.9% or 27,080 tonnes on week to approximately 2.85 million tonnes, according to Mysteel's weekly survey.
Survey respondents pointed out that some domestic mills switched from producing rebar to other finished steel products during the period or halted their production for winter.
The drop in rebar output was chiefly concentrated among mills in North China's Shanxi, Southwest China's Guangxi and Northeast China's Liaoning, the respondents said.
During the survey period, the rebar rolling capacity utilization rate among the surveyed steelmakers dipped 0.6 percentage point on week to 62.5%, while their operational rate stood unchanged on week at 48.2%, Mysteel's surveys found.
China's spot steel market saw prices steadily strengthen last week. As of December 16, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar for example, had soared by Yuan 134/tonne ($19.2/t) on week to hit a two-month high of Yuan 4,133/t including the 13% VAT, according to Mysteel's assessment.
The spot sales of construction steel including rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 Chinese steel trading houses under Mysteel's tracking had increased by 1.3% on week over December 12-16 to average 149,621 tonnes/day, as speculative buying heightened last week due to rising futures prices.
The most-traded rebar contract for May delivery on the Shanghai Futures Exchange jumped by Yuan 140/t from the settlement price on December 9, to close at Yuan 4,049/t when the daytime trading session ended on December 16.
The trends in rebar inventories at the 137 Chinese steel mills and among the traders Mysteel monitors in 35 cities nationwide continued diverging during the survey week. Stocks at the surveyed mills fell for the second week, declining by 7.4% or 135,200 tonnes to 1.7 million tonnes by December 14.
Conversely, the tonnage at the surveyed traders remained largely stable, inching up by just 800 tonnes on week to hover around 3.6 million tonnes by December 15.
Source:Mysteel Global
