China: Shagang rolls over list prices of long steel products for late-Feb'24 sales

Shagang Group (Shagang), China's leading privately-owned steelmaker headquartered in East China's Jiangsu province, is rolling over its list prices for rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil for sales over February 21-29, the company announced on Wednesday.

The steelmaker's decision means it has kept the prices of its major long steel products unchanged for three successive sales periods, Mysteel Global notes.

Consequently, the steel giant's HRB400 16-20mm rebar is still priced at Yuan 4,120/tonne ($573/t) for late February sales, while that for its HPB300 6-10mm high-speed wire rod stays at Yuan 4,270/t, and its HRB400 8-10mm bar-in-coil price is still at Yuan 4,260/t, all in terms of EXW and including the 13% VAT.

As of February 20, the spot price of HRB400E 20mm rebar in Shanghai - a major market for Shagang's long steel items - had declined by Yuan 30/t from the price on February 9, the last working day ahead of the Chinese New Year holiday (over February 10-17), to reach Yuan 3,890/t and including the 13% VAT, according to Mysteel's assessment.

"Work on most construction sites locally has not restarted and steel demand has been recovering at a slow pace," said a Shanghai-based source. "Meanwhile, steel market mood has been impeded by the weakening in the ferrous futures markets," he remarked.

In addition, "domestic finished steel prices have eased recently as a result of the downtrend in raw material prices," he added.

For example, China's national composite coke price under Mysteel's assessment lost Yuan 98.6/t from that on February 9 to sit at Yuan 2,206.4/t including the 13% VAT on February 20.

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