Posted on 16 Apr 2026
Improved financial conditions should see China's demand for construction steel steadily recover this month as work on building and infrastructure projects accelerates during the usual spring season for capital works, according to the findings of Mysteel's latest monthly survey.
The prediction is based on the actual volumes of construction steel products bought by domestic end-users in March and their purchase plans for these products this month.
Mysteel's regular tracking of over 200 domestic construction enterprises showed that their total buying volume of steel products registered 5.77 million tonnes in March, higher by 44.3% from February when the Chinese New Year holidays had interrupted purchasing patterns. Nevertheless, the on-month uptick points to recovering demand with mire steel end-users resuming operations.
For April, the sampled building contractors plan to purchase 6.53 million tonnes of steel products, rising by 13.2% from their actual purchases during March, the findings showed, as more projects are expected to become active this month while builders capitalize on the mild spring weather ahead of summer's heat.
At present, infrastructure projects account for about 76% of total construction work, while housing construction projects represent 23% of demand, indicating that the real estate sector has yet to show any notable recovery, according to the survey.
However, domestic building contractors are still under financial pressure, even though their cash flow has shown some improvement. Many are preferring to be cautious about restocking, purchasing steel products based on their actual needs and keeping their inventories at low levels given the market uncertainties.
Despite the hint of better sales ahead, China's construction steel prices have nonetheless stayed rangebound recently due to the slower-than-expected recovery in demand. On April 14, Mysteel assessed the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar at Yuan 3,328/tonne ($488/t) including the 13% VAT, dipping by Yuan 4/t from the end of March.
Over April 1-14, the combined daily trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 trading houses nationwide under Mysteel's tracking averaged 102,302 tonnes/day. This was still a relatively low average, despite an increase of 15,699 t/d or 18.1% from the average for March.
Source:Mysteel Global
