Posted on 17 Jan 2023
Rebar production among the 137 Chinese steel mills under Mysteel's weekly survey declined for the fifth straight week over January 5-11, slipping by another 4% or 98,400 tonnes on week to 2.38 million tonnes. The reading was also 16.3% lower than the corresponding period last year, Mysteel Global noted.
The latest decline reflected that more steel producers suspended their production for the upcoming Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday over January 21-27, according to survey respondents. Specifically, steel mills in East China's Jiangsu, Central China's Hubei and Southwest China's Sichuan contributed the most to the decline, the latest survey showed.
Over the survey week, the rebar rolling capacity utilization rate among these surveyed mills also fell for the fifth week, down by 2.2 percentage points on week to 52.2%, and their operational rate slipped for the fourth week by 2 percentage points to hover low at 36.7%, according to Mysteel's data.
China's domestic steel prices continued the uptrend last week chiefly due to better market sentiment. On January 13, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, for example, was assessed by Mysteel at a 4.5-month high of Yuan 4,254/tonne ($635/t) including the 13% VAT, or up Yuan 39/t on week and registering a third consecutive weekly rise.
Meanwhile, the spot trading volume of rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among 237 steel trading houses Mysteel monitors plunged by 57% or 54,215 tonnes/day to average just 40,964 t/d last week, as most traders have closed their shops to enjoy the CNY holiday break in advance.
In tandem, lower spot sales saw rebar stocks at both the Chinese steel mills and traders mount, with the tonnage at the 137 steelmakers growing by 3.3% or 54,900 tonnes on week to 1.7 million tonnes as of January 11, and that at the commercial warehouses in 35 Chinese cities Mysteel checks climbing for the seventh week, up by 14% or 609,000 tonnes on week to approximate at 5 million tonnes as of January 12.
Source:Mysteel Global
