Posted on 23 Sep 2021
Over September 21-30, Shagang Group, China’s largest privately-owned steel producer in East China’s Jiangsu province, has raised its rebar ex-works price for the second ten-day domestic sales cycle by another Yuan 150/tonne ($23.2/t) on noting the strong demand especially from steel traders recently, according to a Shagang official.
The latest increment was less than the Yuan 350/t rise over September 11-20 and starting September 21, the leading electric-arc-furnace mill is offering its HRB 16-25mm rebar at Yuan 5,850/t EXW and including the 13% VAT.
Shagang, however, has rolled over the prices of wire rod and bar-in-coil, and its HPB300 6-10mm wire rod price, thus, remains at Yuan 5,910/t and HRB400 8-10mm bar-in-coil still at Yuan 6,000/t, both in terms of EXW and including the VAT, according to the official.
Jiangsu, the second largest steel producing province after North China’s Hebei, has been deepening local steel output cuts as part of the province-wide campaign to lower energy consumption and intensity among the power-intensive industrial enterprises including steel this month, which will lead to further reduction in both crude and finished steel supply, as reported.
Steel traders, thus, have been actively stocking up steel products on the anticipation of the tightening in supply against the pickup in demand in late September, according to the Shagang official, and rebars of certain specifications are already in supply shortage, he added.
Over September 16-30, Shagang will halt two of its rebar rolling mills for maintenance one after another, and more suspension may be expected in the near future with the the latest notification from the local authority just before the Mid-Autumn Festival over September 20-21.
He warned, though, uncertainties still hover above China’s long steel market despite the recent robustness in sales volume and prices, mainly because of the cash constraints among some end-users such as property developers and construction contractors.
“They are still tight with cash, so they can only afford to procure (steel products) in small quantities, even though they do need to stock up before the long National Day holiday (over October 1-7),” he noted.
Recently, Chinese steelmakers’ profits have been expanding with rising finished steel prices while lower costs in key steelmaking materials such as iron ore and scrap, and Shagang, for example, has cut its steel scrap procurement price by Yuan 70/t since September 17 on less demand, as reported.
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Shagang’s premiums for other long products over Sept 21-30 |
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Specification |
Premium |
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HRB400 10mm dia rebar |
Yuan 160/t |
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HRB400 12mm dia rebar |
Yuan 100/t |
|
HRB400 14mm dia rebar |
Yuan 30/t |
|
HRB400 28-32mm dia rebar |
Yuan 60/t |
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HRB400 36mm/40mm dia rebar |
Yuan 250/t |
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HRB500 14-25mm |
Yuan 300/t on top of HRB400 base prices |
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HRB400 6mm dia bar-in-coil |
Yuan 300/t |
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Anti-seismic rebar |
Yuan 30/t |
Source:Mysteel Global
