China: Shagang keeps longs list prices unchanged for mid-Feb sales

Shagang Group, China's leading privately-owned steelmaker in East China's Jiangsu province, has decided to roll over the list prices of its major long steel products for domestic sales during the middle 10 days of February, according to the steel giant's pricing policy released on Saturday. The company's decision reflected the volatility seen in spot longs prices and the slower-than-expected recovery in demand, sources said.

As a result, Shagang's HRB400 16-25mm dia rebars are still being offered at Yuan 4,400/tonne ($645/t), while the mill's prices for HPB300 6-10mm high-speed wire rod and HRB400 8-10mm bar-in-coil stay unchanged at Yuan 4,560/t and Yuan 4,650/t respectively, all in terms of EXW and including the 13% VAT.

"Domestic steel prices have appeared rangebound recently, with market sentiment wavering," said a Shanghai-based analyst. "On the one hand, there are still positive expectations for the macroeconomy (while) on the other hand, uncertainties about the speed of demand improvement remain - even though construction companies have gradually resumed building activities after the Lantern Festival (on February 5)," he noted.

As of February 10, Mysteel's assessment showed the HRB400E 20mm dia rebar price in Shanghai, a major market for Shagang's products, had declined by Yuan 90/t from the end of January to reach Yuan 4,140/t including the 13% VAT.

Spot trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 trading houses across China Mysteel monitors regularly averaged 87,186 tonnes/day over February 6-10, more than double the average volume of 40,964 t/d recorded over January 9-13, the last full week before Mysteel halted tracking the data for the Chinese New Year holiday.

Written by Rong Zhang, zhangronga@mysteel.com

Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.