China's rebar price hits 3.5-month low, sales recover

On May 19, China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar dropped for the sixth working day, down by another Yuan 42/tonne ($6.2/t) on day to touch a 3.5-month low of Yuan 4,832/t including the 13% VAT, while spot sales of construction steel including rebar recovered by 32.5% on day after two days of declines, both according to Mysteel's assessments.

On Thursday, the daily trading volume of construction steel also comprising wire rod and bar-in-coil among China's 237 trading houses grew by 41,098 tonnes/day on day to 167,377 t/d.

With the rebound in rebar prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) throughout the course of the afternoon trading session of May 19, some end-users were willing to take some tonnage, while traders opted to book some speculative orders, market sources shared.

SHFE's most-traded rebar October contract finally closed at Yuan 4,579/t when the daytime trading session ended on May 19, down by Yuan 18/t or 0.4% from the settlement price of May 18.

Also on Thursday, China's longs prices were unable to source any support from semis, as the Tangshan Q235 150mm square billet price in North China's Hebei province under Mysteel's tracking slipped by another Yuan 30/t on day to Yuan 4,490/t EXW and including the 13% VAT.

Written by Villanelle Xia, xiayi@mysteel.com

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