Domestic Billet Prices in China Move Up - 25 Jan'19 Update

Today, the regular billet of Tangshan in Changli are implementing locked price at RMB 3,430/MT ex-factory, cash including tax, valid through till Feb 10th 2019. The billet market is active and price of finished steel tends to rise. Prices have moved up by RMB 30/MT against yesterday. The specific transactions are as follows:

Billet: Mill direct shipment is smooth. Ex-warehouse spot is at RMB 3,540-3,550/MT including tax with some transactions in low-cost resources. The overall transaction of finished products is stable.

Construction steel: Tangshan market saw a decline of RMB 30 in construction steel price. The current market price of rebar HRB400 of big size is at RMB 3,710/MT small size at RMB 3,750/MT while coiled rebar at RMB 3,780/MT with lukewarm transaction.

Section steel: In the early trading hours of Tangshan market, angles went up by RMB10 while channels remained stable before rising by RMB10-20 shortly. Now the mainstream quotation of I beam is RMB3,770-3,790, channel steel RMB3,770-3,800, angle steel RMB3,760-3,780 with an overall acceptable transaction performance. As of 10: 30am, of the 16 section mills being tracked, the sales totaled 20,550 tons, an increase of 128% compared with yesterday's morning. Specifically, 5 mills sold 4,400 tons of I beams, 5 sold 6,400 tons of channels, and 6 sold 9,750 tons of angles.

HRC: HRC market price rose by RMB 60/MT and coils of 3.0mm is at RMB 3,700/MT and mainstream flattened 5.5mm is at RMB 3,680/MT while Q345 flattened at RMB3,840.

Medium plate: Mid-plate market price rose by RMB 20/MT and now the mainstream carbon plate 14-22mm is at RMB3,800, while the low alloy plate at RMB 4,000/MT.