Posted on 14 Feb 2022
Shagang Group, China's largest privately-owned steel producer headquartered in East China's Jiangsu province, announced on Friday to raise the ex-works prices of all its major long steel products by Yuan 100/tonne ($15.7/t) for sales over February 11-20. Shagang's latest pricing policy was announced amid the bullish steel market sentiment after the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday.
The official CNY holiday ended on February 6 and during the current week after the holiday, Chinese steel producers like Shagang as well as steel traders have been actively hiking their prices, even though downstream users - construction sites in particular for these long products - have yet to fully resume work, Mysteel Global noted.
Over February 7-10, China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, for example, had increased for four consecutive working days, up by Yuan 186/t in total to reach Yuan 5,003/t including the 13% VAT, or a high since November 5 2021, according to Mysteel's price assessment.
The bullish sentiment was mainly due to the ongoing production restrictions imposed on steelmakers in North China to improve air quality during the Winter Olympic Games being staged in and around Beijing over February 4-20, as Mysteel Global reported.
The serious supply reduction in some of China's key steel-producing hubs such as Hebei province, is putting the supply side under higher pressure given that total steel stocks among mills and traders are at low levels, according to market sources.
"The sentiment (regarding the price movement) is quite healthy at the moment," a steel trader in East China's Jiangxi province observed. "We're unwilling to sell at large quantities for now, as we are afraid the prices may move up further in late February or March when steel demand really starts to revive," he said.
With Shagang's latest blanket price hike, its HRB400 16-25mm rebar is then priced at Yuan 5,100/t, and its HPB300 6-10mm wire rod and HRB400 8-10mm bar-in-coil at Yuan 5,310/t and Yuan 5,400/t respectively over February 11-20.
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Shagang's premiums for other long products over Feb 11-20 |
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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
