China: Tangshan Billet Price Flat, Long Steel Trading Low

As of February 14, Mysteel's national average price for HRB400 20mm dia rebar declined another Yuan 12/MT(USD 1.7/MT) on day to Yuan 3,730/MT, while Tangshan Q235 150mm square billet price had remained unchanged since January 13 at Yuan 3,300/MT EXW as of February 16, both including the 13% VAT, and spot sales of construction steel stayed low.

The trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among 237 major traders under Mysteel's daily survey hovered low at a total of 6,835 MT/day as of last Friday, though being up 37.4% on day.

The recovery in steel demand had been at a crawling speed until the end of last week at construction sites have been slow in resumption on the difficulty of its workers to return to work amid public transportation bottleneck and the strict procedure to apply for resumption, Mysteel Global noted.

The Novel Corona virus Pneumonia has not been under the control yet even though positive signs have emerged and most the enterprises in China have been extra careful in resuming normal working order.

Tangshan billet market has been static for the past month or so, as "most local re-rollers have halted operations, and transportation capacity also remained low," a Tangshan-based market source from North China's Hebei said, adding that some re-rollers had already submitted applications for resumption but the local authorities need to review and approve before they can decide on the date to return to operations.

"The few re-rollers in operations have been digesting their billet stocks instead of ordering new cargoes, which is why local steelmakers have started slowing down production since early February with their rising stocks at the plant but low demand from re-rollers," she stated.

This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.