China: Tangshan billet price hit over 12-year high

As of March 21, the Tangshan Q235 150mm square billet price in North China's Hebei province soared to a new high of Yuan 4,620/tonne ($710.1/t) EXW including the VAT since mid-September 2008, or up for the fifth day by another Yuan 130/t from last Friday mainly on the market concern on supply with Tangshan's releasing detailed curbing on local steel operations until the year-end, according to Mysteel's monitoring.

To date, the billet price had gained Yuan 770/t in total from the locked price of Yuan 3,850/t over February 2-17, while China's national price of HRB400 20mm dia rebar had yet fully digested the detailed announcement on the afternoon of March 19, thus having remained largely steady at Yuan 4,730/t ($727/t) including the 13% VAT on March 19, or even inching down by Yuan 1/t on the day, according to Mysteel's assessments.

Last Friday, the daily trading volume of construction steel including rebar, wire rod, and bar-in-coil among the 237 Chinese steel traders slipped for the second day by 2.4% or 4,911 t/d on a day to 196,543 tonnes/day, Mysteel's statistics showed.

Over March 15-19, the daily trading volume averaged 206,453 t/d, confirming that the demand has indeed picked up in March, with March-April being a traditional peak-season for steel consumption in China.

-Written by Rong Zhang, zhangronga@mysteel.com

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