China: Baoshan Steel holds HRC prices for Feb domestic sales

Baoshan Iron & Steel Co (Baoshan Steel), the listed-arm of the world's top steel producer China Baowu Steel Group, has announced to roll over its list prices of hot-rolled coil (HRC) for February domestic sales, according to the latest release via its official WeChat account.

Baoshan Steel does not reveal actual list prices for its individual products in its pricing policy but just the margin of adjustment, Mysteel Global understands.

The latest price policy marks the second month that Baoshan Steel will keep its HRC prices flat, despite the fact that spot HRC prices have been continuously rising so far in January, as the country's national price of Q235 4.75mm HRC price under Mysteel's assessment gained by Yuan 40/tonne ($6.3/t) from that on December 31 to Yuan 4,818/t including the 13% VAT on January 7.

However, the HRC price was still lower by Yuan 36/t on month as of January 7, as demand has shown signs of declining ahead of the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday over January 31-February 6 while output has been growing steadily, Mysteel Global noted.

As of January 6, HRC stocks at the commercial warehouses in the 33 Chinese cities under Mysteel's tracking mounted 20,000 tonnes on week after three weeks of declines to around 2.2 million tonnes. And as of January 5, HRC output among the 37 mills under Mysteel's tracking had grown for the second week by another 3% to 3.1 million tonnes, a three-month high.

For February, Baoshan Steel's list prices for other steel products including carbon steel plate, pickled and oiled coil, cold-rolled coil, hot-dipped galvanized steel, electro-galvanized steel, color-coated coil and non-grain oriented electrical steel will also remain unchanged from those for January. Meanwhile, the steelmaker had lifted its prices of grain oriented electrical steel for the third straight month, up another Yuan 200/t.

Written by Rong Zhang, zhangronga@mysteel.com
This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.