Posted on 02 Jun 2021
Rebar production among China’s 137 steel mills under Mysteel’s monitoring including both integrated mills and re-rollers had shown signs of stabilizing after declines in the prior two weeks over May 20-26, with the volume up but by just 0.1% or 4,200 tonnes in total to 3.71 million tonnes, as the market sentiment has been settling from the earlier jitters because of the price declines since May 13.
Over the survey period, rebar rolling capacity utilization among the surveyed producers reversed up 0.1 percentage point on week to 81.3%, while the operational rate among the rolling mills dropped by 1.6 percentage points to 69.5% with some idled for maintenance, Mysteel’s related surveys showed.
China’s steel market sentiment was not as pessimistic as in mid-May after the continuing slumps since May 13 that had more or less lost all the over Yuan 1,000/tonne ($157/t) gain over May 6-12, and as of May 28, China’s national HRB400E 20mm dia rebar price under Mysteel’s assessment, recovered from the consistent slumps since May 13, up Yuan 66/t on day to Yuan 5,083/t including the 13% VAT, though on the weekly basis, it slumped for the second week by another Yuan 319/t.
The daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among China’s 237 steel traders under Mysteel’s tracking recovered too over May 24-28, up 18,570 tonnes/day or 10.5% on week to 196,160 t/d, though still below the 200,000 t/d threshold for a robust steel-consumption season in China.
Rebar stocks at the Chinese steel mills and among the traders under Mysteel’s tracking diverged in the last week of May, as the volume at the 137 mills increased for the second week by 9.1% to 3.31 million tonnes by May 26, while the tonnage the commercial warehouses in China’s 35 cities declined for the twelfth week, down 4.2% to 7.48 million tonnes by May 27, partly as the traders were eager to sell off but not keen to refill the stocks when steel prices had been softening.
Table 1: Rebar Production Survey by Region by May 26
Table 2: Wire Rod Production Survey by Region by May 26
Table 3: Rebar Production Survey by Process by May 26
Table 4: Wire Rod Production Survey by Process by May 26
Table 5: Mills' Rebar and Wire Rod Stocks by Region by May 26
Table 6: Rebar and Wire Rod Stocks Survey by Process by May 26
Source:Mysteel Global
