Shagang lifts long steel prices by $7/t for late Nov sales

Shagang Group (Shagang), China's leading privately-owned steelmaker in East China's Jiangsu province, has raised its list prices of rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil by Yuan 50/tonne ($7/t) for domestic dales over November 21-30, the company announced on November 21.

With the latest price adjustment, Shagang's HRB400 16-25mm price climbs to Yuan 3,950/t, the first time for the mill to lift its rebar prices after having cut them for three successive price periods, Mysteel Global noted.

Meanwhile, Monday's announcement also put an end to the steel giant's roll-over of wire rod and bar-in-coil list prices for the prior six sales periods, with its HPB300 6-10mm wire rod and HRB400 8-10mm bar-in-coil prices rising to Yuan 4,360/t and Yuan 4,450/t respectively. All prices are in terms of EXW and including the 13% VAT.

Shagang's new pricing policy reflected the strengthening of domestic steel prices witnessed recently, and the improved market sentiment, according to a market watcher. As of November 18, the HRB400E 20mm rebar in Shanghai - a major market for the Shagang brand rebar - had gained Yuan 90/t from the price on November 10 to reach Yuan 3,840/t including the 13% VAT, according to Mysteel's assessment.

Shagang's price hikes for longs have been in step with the rises it's made to its scrap procurement prices recently. Since November 8, the company has lifted its steel scrap buying prices three times by a total of Yuan 300/t. The blast furnace and electric furnace maker is now paying Yuan 2,910-2,970/t for domestically-sourced HMS grade scrap including the delivery and the 13% VAT.

Mysteel's survey across the 237 Chinese steel trading houses it tracks regularly showed that their daily trading of rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil averaged 167,144 tonnes/day over mid-November, inching down by 910 t/d or 0.5% from the average over the previous ten days. "The small dip in spot sales occurred because end-users procured in some quantities mainly for their immediate need after steel prices strengthened," said a Shanghai-based market source.

Written by Rong Zhang, zhangronga@mysteel.com

Edited by Zhenqi Yang, yangzhenqi@mysteel.com

Note: This article has been written in accordance with an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.