Posted on 23 Mar 2026
China's total production of rebar declined by 9.1% on year to sit at 26.9 million tonnes over January-February, according to the latest data released by the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on March 19.
The NBS combines the national rebar output in January with February's, as the Chinese New Year holiday usually falls in either of the two months, Mysteel Global notes.
Weak demand from end-users and losses on rebar sales led Chinese steelmakers to scale back production in the opening two months of the year, according to market sources.
Mysteel's other survey on the profitability of sampled Chinese blast furnace mills found that their average loss on sales of rebar was Yuan 30/tonne ($4.4/t) during February, deepening by Yuan 15/t compared with January.
The lower rebar price was another factor eroding BF mills' profit margin in the two months, with Mysteel assessing the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar at Yuan 3,304/t on February 28, down by Yuan 20/t from the level on December 31 last year.
In the spot market, the daily trading volume of rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 Chinese steel trading houses under Mysteel's tracking averaged 74,329 tonnes/day in the first two months, slumping by 16.4% or 14,552 t/d from the corresponding period last year, reflecting weak consumption from building projects.
The findings in another NBS release were in line with the result, with the other data showing that in the first two months, newly launched housing projects by floor area in China had slumped by 23.1% on year to 50.84 million sq m.
In addition, rebar accounted for 12.2% of the 221.2 million tonnes of finished steel that the country produced during January-February, the NBS data revealed. Finished steel output had edged down by a small 1.1% in the first two months, according to the same release.
Source:Mysteel Global
