China's Tangshan Steel Price Update - 23 Jan'19

Yesterday price of the general carbon steel billet in Tangshan, Changli and Qian'an was settled at RMB 3, 430/MT ex-factory including tax, up RMB 30/MT. Today, the overall steel market is weak with listless transaction in billet and tentatively loosened price of finished. The specific transactions are as follows:

Billet: Mill direct sale is moderate while warehoused spot is at RMB 3,500-3,510/MT ex-warehouse including tax ,with some transactions. Transactions of finished products are generally flat out of the warehouse, some have transactions. Today Changli area implemented supply at locked price of RMB 3,400/MT for billets till Feb 10,2019. The overall transaction of finished products is weak, due to the fact that downstream construction sites are shutdown one by one and traders' offers are just in line with market conditions.

Construction steel: mainstream market price in Tangshan moved up RMB 10-20, and the current price of rebar HRB400 of big size is RMB 3,750, small size at RMB 3,750, coiled rebar at RMB 3,780, with plain transaction performance.

Section steel: Section steel in Tangshan tends to be weak, and some manufacturers are selling at low prices. Now the mainstream price of I beam is at RMB3,790-3,800, angle at RMB3,750-3,770, channel at RMB3,760-3,800,with an overall thin transaction. As of 10:30am, the 16 steel mills being tracked in Tangshan sold 6,600 Tons, down 79% compared with early trading yesterday.Amongt them, 5 sold 900 tons of I beams, 5 sold 1600 tons of channels, and 6 sold about 4,000 tons of angles.

HRC: HRC market is temporarily stable, and 3.0mm coils is reported at RMB 3,620/MT mainstream flattened 5.5mm is offered at RMB 3,600/MT and Q345 flattened at RMB 3,760/MT.