Posted on 02 Nov 2021
Over October 21-27, rebar production among the 137 Chinese steel mills under Mysteel's tracking including integrated mills and re-rollers reached a one-month high of 2.9 million tonnes after an on-week recovery of 6.5% or 177,900 tonnes. The rebound was chiefly due to the production resumption among mills across the country.
The growth in rebar output was largely evident at steelmakers in Northeast China's Heilongjiang, Central China's Henan and Hubei, East China's Jiangsu and Anhui and Southwest China's Yunnan, according to survey respondents, as their production had resumed moderately due to the loosening of power rationing.
However, rebar output during the survey period was still 20.1% or 729,200 tonnes lower than the corresponding period last year, according to Mysteel's tracking.
During the survey period, both rebar rolling capacity utilization and the operational rates among these surveyed producers increased, with the former reversing up by 3.9 percentage points to 63.7%, while the latter rose for the fourth week in a row, up 1.3 percentage points to 56.1%, according to the survey.
The pick-up in rebar output and the pessimistic market sentiment saw China's domestic steel prices decline. As of October 29, the country's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar under Mysteel's assessment reached Yuan 5,361/tonne ($837/t) including the 13% VAT, or down for the third straight week by another Yuan 225/t.
Over October 25-29, spot trading volume of construction steel including rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among China's 237 steel traders monitored by Mysteel recovered by 4.5% or 7,452 tonnes/day on week to an average of 171,869 t/d. The volume was still low, however, given that end-October is traditionally a high consumption period.
Meanwhile, there still was a disparity in rebar inventories between the 137 steel mills and among traders in the 35 Chinese cities tracked by Mysteel, with the former growing for the second week by 7.3% or 177,300 tonnes on week to 2.6 million tonnes as of October 27, while the latter declined for the third successive week, thinning by 5.3% or 309,700 tonnes on week to 5.6 million tonnes as of October 28.
Table 1: Rebar Production Survey by Region by Oct 27
Table 2: Wire Rod Production Survey by Region by Oct 27
Table 3: Rebar Production Survey by Process by Oct 27
Table 4: Wire Rod Production Survey by Process by Oct 27
Table 5: Mills' Rebar and Wire Rod Stocks by Region by Oct 27
Table 6: Rebar and Wire Rod Stocks Survey by Process by Oct 27
Source:Mysteel Global
