Posted on 21 May 2025
China's rebar production declined by 0.9% on year during this year's first four months to reach 65.4 million tonnes, according to the latest data released by the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on May 20. Within the total volume, 17.3 million tonnes were produced during April alone, rising by 5.9% on year.
The rebar rolling capacity utilization rate among the 137 Chinese steelmakers that Mysteel regularly tracks was in line with the NBS result, as their run rate had also gained by 3.1 percentage points from April last year to average 50.4% last month.
However, rebar output last month decreased by 1.3 million tonnes or 7% from March, Mysteel Global calculated based on the NBS data. During the month, some domestic mills slowed their production in response to low spot rebar prices – a consequence of the weaker-than-expected recovery in demand and the gloomy market mood amid heightened China-U.S. trade tensions.
For example, China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of domestic steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at an average of Yuan 3,318/tonne ($460/t) including the 13% VAT in April, down Yuan 57/t from the prior month's average.
On the demand side, the spot trading volume of long steel items including rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 trading houses Mysteel monitors averaged 115,677 tonnes/day last month, much lower than the 151,316 t/d level in the same month last year, the statistics show. However, the volume was higher by 7,939 t/d or 7.4% from March.
China's finished steel output reached 125.1 million tonnes during April, up 6.6% on year and taking the January-April total to 480.2 million tonnes, up by 6% on year, according to the NBS data.
Source:Mysteel Global
