Posted on 30 Jun 2026
Billet prices in Tangshan in North China's Hebei province lost more ground during June 22-28, with Mysteel assessing the price of Q235 150mm square billet in the city at Yuan 2,960/t ($436/t) EXW and including the 13% VAT on June 28, down Yuan 40/t on week.
Lower billet prices have worsened the losses for Tangshan steelmakers from billet sales, propelling them to conduct maintenance on some blast furnaces while consuming more billets to produce finished steel items rather than selling them to the market.
This led billet availability in local markets to contract last week, with the volume of the semis being sold or exported by the 21 steelmakers in Tangshan and surrounding areas under Mysteel's tracking declining by 4.7% or 2,100 tonnes/day to average 42,600 t/d over June 19-25.
As for billet demand, during the sample week many re-rollers had halted operations for maintenance which resulted in a significant decrease in billet consumption. The tonnage of billet used by the 34 re-rollers under Mysteel's tracking averaged 32,300 t/d over June 18-24, slumping by 24.5% or 10,500 t/d on week.
Their paused operations and subdued end-user demand have intensified cautions among re-rollers for replenishing billet inventories. Consequently, most opted to consume in-plant inventories for production instead of procuring more.
As such, billet inventories held by the 34 surveyed re-rollers in Tangshan dropped by 1.9% or 19,300 tonnes on week to 587,200 tonnes by June 24.
Meanwhile, the decline in retail billet inventories seen previously continued last week, thanks to the delivery of export orders which reduced portside billet stocks. On the other hand, sluggish spot trading caused inventories stored in commercial warehouses to mount.
Overall, combined stocks held in three commercial warehouses and two ports in Tangshan under Mysteel's survey totaled 2.2 million tonnes as of June 25, down 3.5% or 78,500 tonnes on week.
Tangshan billet prices are expected to see more slight declines this week due to the weak market fundamentals. Despite output cuts, demand for the semis is expected to remain weak both domestically and globally, serving as the key factor exerting downside pressure prices of the semis.
Source:Mysteel Global
