Posted on 24 Mar 2026
Billet prices in Tangshan in North China's Hebei province posted further gains over March 16-22, with Mysteel assessing the price of Q235 150mm square billet in the city at Yuan 2,980/tonne ($431/t) EXW including the 13% VAT on March 22, up by Yuan 10/t on week.
On the supply side, most mills had restarted idled blast furnaces by last week, while production on some rolling mills forming steel strips had also restarted. As such, the volume of billet sold or exported by the 21 steelmakers in Tangshan and the surrounding area regularly monitored by Mysteel declined over March 13-19, falling by 3.9% or 1,500 tonnes/day on week to average 37,200 t/d.
As for billet demand, most local re-rollers had switched their rolling mills back online after production curbs had been lifted, which resulted in a sharp gain in billet usage. The daily consumption of semis among the 34 local re-rollers under Mysteel's tracking averaged 34,500 t/d over March 12-18, rocketing by 118.4% or 18,700 t/d on week.
Ahead of the restart, many re-rollers had replenished some low-priced billets in preparation, which led to higher in-plant billet stocks and slowed the pace of inventory accumulation in retail stocks of the semis, Mysteel Global noted.
Specifically, billet inventories held by the 34 local re-rollers under Mysteel's tracking rose significantly on-week, with the tonnage climbing by 14.7% or 96,000 tonnes to total 750,000 tonnes as of March 18.
Meanwhile, billet inventories piled in the three commercial warehouses and at the two ports in Tangshan that Mysteel tracks rose by 3.2% or 82,600 tonnes on week to 2.65 million tonnes as of March 19, a new record high.
Mysteel expects a small drop in Tangshan billet prices this week, mainly due to fading cost support and subdued demand for billet-rolled finished steel items. The weak demand is also expected to dampen the re-rollers' enthusiasm for production, which in turn would reduce their billet procurement, causing billet inventories to swell and consequently weigh on billet prices.
Source:Mysteel Global
