Posted on 14 Aug 2025
China's demand for construction steel is expected to keep stable overall in August, supported by the launch of new projects, according to Mysteel's latest monthly survey. The new building starts may partially offset the disruptions caused to outdoor construction by adverse weather conditions recently.
The prediction is based on actual volumes of construction steel products bought by domestic end-users in July and their purchase plans for this month.
Mysteel's regular tracking of over 200 domestic construction enterprises showed that they purchased a total of 5.62 million tonnes of construction steel products in July, down by 1.6% on month, and lower by 2.6% from their planned amount.
For this month, their planned buying volume is estimated at 5.8 million tonnes, marking an increase of 3.2% from their actual purchases during the previous month, the findings showed.
Although the launch of new projects may boost domestic steel demand, any increase this month will be limited, as August is generally a poor month for steel consumption, with the continued impact of high temperatures and frequent heavy rains in most regions of the country, Mysteel Global noted.
China's construction steel sales have shown signs of improvement so far this month. Over August 1-12, the daily trading volume of rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 trading houses nationwide under Mysteel's regular tracking averaged 104,366 tonnes/day, higher by 2,133 t/d or 2.1% compared with the average for July.
Negative sentiment in China's steel market has eased significantly. However, many steel users remain cautious, purchasing only to meet immediate their needs while keeping their inventories at a low level, given the ongoing uncertainty in the domestic steel market, according to the survey.
China's finished steel prices have been rangebound so far this month, with the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of domestic steel-market sentiment under Mysteel's assessment, reaching Yuan 3,427/tonne ($478/t) including the 13% VAT on August 12, rising by just Yuan 20/t from the end of July.
Source:Mysteel Global
