Weekly: Near-term outlook on China's steel products

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

Rebar & wire rod: Prices of the two long steel products are expected to fluctuate at the bottom levels over 5-9 August. The market sentiment has improved moderately with steel output falling, demand largely stable, and stocks continuing to thin.

Hot-rolled coil: This price is likely to soften further amid volatility in the week ending 9 August, as both its production and inventories may remain relatively high, leading to weaker market fundamentals.

Hot-rolled coil (HRC) stocks at commercial warehouses in the 33 Chinese cities Mysteel tracks grew for the second week by 61,500 tonnes (t) on week to refresh a four-month high of 3.4 mnt as of 1 August.

Cold-rolled coil: This price may keep declining amid fluctuations in the week through 9 August. Many traders hold a cautiously optimistic outlook for the CRC market in the near term due to heavy losses they borne, and some traders have reduced placing orders with mills. On the other hand, some mills will suspend production for facility maintenance this month.

Medium plate: This price may be narrowly range-bound over 5-9 August. According to a source in northern China, local demand for plates will remain weak as downstream construction work still proceeds at a rather slow pace, traders will also be hesitant to make purchases, and steel mills may scale back production due to their poor margins on sales.

Sections: The sections' prices may stay on the downtrend this week, against the backdrop of imbalanced production and demand. Traders may show less interest in replenishing their stocks, while output of sections among integrated mills and re-rollers may fall modestly as they may conduct more maintenance works due to margin losses and high stocks.

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