China's rebar price rebound on improved trade activities

China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar under Mysteel's assessment finally gained some steam on March 28 after declining for nine consecutive working days, though up by a small Yuan 6/tonne ($0.9/t) on day to Yuan 4,267/t including the 13% VAT, while spot trading of construction steel including rebar also rebounded above the threshold of 200,000 tonnes.

On Tuesday, the trading volume of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among 237 Chinese trading houses under Mysteel's tracking recovered by 20,903 tonnes/day or 11.6% to reach 200,563 t/d.

The overall sentiment in the domestic steel market improved somewhat throughout yesterday, thanks to the strengthening futures prices of China's major ferrous commodities, which also lent some support for transactions in the physical market, Mysteel Global noted.

The most-traded rebar May contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, for example, closed the daytime trading session at Yuan 4,136/t on Tuesday, Yuan 31/t or 0.8% higher from Monday's settlement price, the exchange's data showed.

Semis prices also gathered momentum from the rally in prices of finished steel, with the Tangshan Q235 150mm square billet price in North China's Hebei province under Mysteel's assessment rising by Yuan 20/t from Monday to Yuan 3,880/t EXW and including the VAT as of Tuesday.

Written by Winnie Han, hanyueran@mysteel.com

Edited by Alyssa Ren, rentingting@mysteel.com

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