Posted on 22 Dec 2021
Shagang Group, China's largest privately-owned steel producer headquartered in East China's Jiangsu province, is rolling over the list prices of its long steel products for December 21-31 sales from the prior ten-day period, it announced on December 21. Market sources said stable trading is giving support to the prices.
As a result, Shagang's HRB 16-25mm rebar is still priced at Yuan 5,000/tonne ($784.9/t) for December 21-31, with HPB300 6-10mm wire rod and HRB400 8-10mm bar-in-coil priced at Yuan 5,210/t and Yuan 5,300/t respectively, all in terms of EXW and including the 13% VAT.
"The weather has been very pleasant so far this winter, so many projects are still proceeding as per normal and giving support to current steel demand and prices," commented an official in the long steel sales department of another major steel producer in Jiangsu.
Mysteel's survey across 237 steel traders nationwide showed that the trading of these three kinds of steel products for construction use has been rather stable so far this month. The average volume traded over December 1-20 was 176,919 tonnes/day, only slightly lower than an average of 198,700 t/d over September-October - the two months widely viewed as China's peak season for steel consumption.
But steel mills are concerned that sales will come under pressure in the weeks ahead when the weather eventually turns colder, and they're already detecting some resistance on the part of traders to buy and stock up steel at current prices too.
This is probably the reason why Shagang decided to hold its steel prices stable, despite a rise of Yuan 150/tonne in its steel scrap procurement prices on the same day, as reported.
Some sales pressure is inevitable as steel demand will come to a standstill around the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday over January 31-February 6 next year, the mill official said. "The traders, in the meantime, are also unwilling to procure, as the current prices are generally Yuan 600-700/t higher on year," she noted.
It is traditional practice among Chinese steel traders to build some stocks ahead of the CNY break when steel demand and prices are comparatively low, in order to prepare for the demand revival next spring, Mysteel Global notes.
A steel trader based in Shanghai admitted he has completely abandoned any idea of stocking up steel products this year.
"The prices are too high. It is too risky to hold the stocks at hand for such a long period, especially when you are uncertain about market developments next year," he told Mysteel Global.
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Shagang's premiums for other long products over December 21-31 |
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|
Specification |
Premium |
|
HRB400 10mm dia rebar |
Yuan 160/t |
|
HRB400 12mm dia rebar |
Yuan 100/t |
|
HRB400 14mm dia rebar |
Yuan 30/t |
|
HRB400 28-32mm dia rebar |
Yuan 60/t |
|
HRB400 36mm/40mm dia rebar |
Yuan 250/t |
|
HRB500 14-25mm |
Yuan 300/t on top of HRB400 base prices |
|
HRB400 6mm dia bar-in-coil |
Yuan 300/t |
|
Anti-seismic rebar |
Yuan 30/t |
Source:Mysteel Global
