Near-term outlook on China's steel products

• Longs prices likely to be stable
  
  
• HRC offers to rise, CRC may soften
  
  

Mysteel Global: Below is the brief near-term outlook for five key steel products shared by Mysteel on a weekly basis, drawing upon the results of related surveys and communication with Chinese market participants.

Rebar, wire rod: Prices of these two long steel products are likely to be range-bound over 21-25 October, with mills' output growing further while downstream demand stays largely stable. Inventories of steel longs may decline as traders keep clearing the pile-ups at their warehouses amid cautious sentiment, though the pace of destocking may be slower.

Hot-rolled coil: Prices will probably move up in the week through 25 October, driven by improved market expectations and a pick-up in demand from end-users in the near term.

By 17 October, hot-rolled coil (HRC) stocks held by traders in the 33 Chinese cities under Mysteel's tracking hit an eight-month low of 2.88 million tonnes (mnt), down 3.4% or 102,300 tonnes (t) w-o-w and marking declines for six straight weeks.

Cold-rolled coil: Prices are expected to soften amid volatility in the week ending 25 October, as fundamentals, rather than sentiment, will dominate the market again, and actual demand will remain largely unchanged. Mysteel estimates that cold-rolled coil (CRC) output among 29 steel mills across China may hover at around 830,000 t this week.

Medium plate: Prices may wobble slightly over 21-25 October. Trading activities have been tepid lately against the backdrop of weak demand and production, according to a source based in northern China. End-users may mainly take a wait-and-watch stance, having completed restocking activities earlier.

Sections: Sections' prices may decrease this week. On the one hand, output may grow as the enthusiasm of mills for cranking up their production will be boosted by healthy profit margins, and on the other hand, traders and building contractors are not keen to stock up sections amid volatility in steel prices.

Note: This article has been written in accordance with a content exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and BigMint.