Posted on 19 May 2021
Chinese steel export prices continued the climb last week, following the uptrend in the domestic market and China’s cancellation of most export tax rebates on steel, Mysteel’s latest weekly report shows. However, the size of the increase varies among products, especially among items whose rebate remains and those whose rebates have been removed.
As of May 14, the transaction price of SS400 4.75mm hot-rolled coil (HRC) as assessed by Mysteel was $1,031/tonne FOB from North China’s Tianjin port, up $85/t on week or by $110/t from April 30, the last day before the rebate cancellation.
Meanwhile, the export price of B500B 16-25mm rebar increased $123/t on week or by $128/t from April 30 to $894/t FOB from East China’s Zhangjiagang port as of the same day.
HRC and rebar, along with another 144 steel products, saw their tax rebates (mostly at 13%) removed from May 1, as reported, with the 146 affected products accounting for around 70% of China’s total steel exports. Rebates on some 25% of other exports were retained, including that on cold-rolled coil (CRC).
In comparison to HRC and rebar, Mysteel’s assessment for the export price of SPCC 1.0mm CRC last week increased by a far smaller $82/t from April 30 to $1,044/t FOB from Tianjin port, as of last Friday.
“As many cold-rolled products are still able to enjoy rebates, so their export prices have been increasing much more slowly than those for hot-rolled items,” a steel analyst based in Shanghai observed. “In the Asian market, the price gap between HRC and CRC has narrowed to a historic low,” she observed, adding that at current prices China-origin CRC products are still quite competitive among global steel exports.
The price gap between Mysteel’s HRC and CRC exports narrowed to only $13/t as of May 14 from $41/t on April 30, Mysteel Global noted.
Nevertheless, with the surges in price recently, especially after the rebate removal, Chinese-origin HRC is gradually losing its price advantage in global trading while China-made rebar has completely lost its edge, according to the weekly report.
Last week, while the Chinese export price of rebar stood at $894/t FOB, rebar of the same grade from Turkey was only $770/t FOB, according to Mysteel’s tracking.
Source:Mysteel Global
