Posted on 12 Apr 2023
Billet prices in Tangshan in North China's Hebei province slipped during April 3-9 as market sentiment was dampened by the continuous slide in the prices of major finished steel products, market sources observed.
As of April 9, Mysteel's assessment of the Q235 billet price in Tangshan had lost a significant Yuan 100/tonne ($14.5/t) on week to Yuan 3,800/t EXW and including the 13% VAT. The price drop caused steelmakers to suffer larger losses, according to Mysteel's survey.
As of April 7, the losses on billet sales borne by the ten integrated mills in Tangshan under Mysteel's coverage averaged Yuan 52/t, widening from the prior week's Yuan 2/t, even though the average cost incurred by those mills when producing those semis had eased Yuan 50/t on week to Yuan 3,852/t during March 30-April 5.
Re-rollers became more cautious about restocking feed materials as they saw the prices of rebar and hot-rolled coil lose ground last week, according to a market analyst based in Tangshan.
As of April 5, total billet inventories among the 55 re-rollers in Tangshan under Mysteel's tracking had dropped by 31,700 tonnes or 7% on week to 419,600 tonnes, while over March 30-April 5 the re-rollers' billet consumption averaged 71,400 tonnes/day, up by only 500 t/d on week.
Consequently, the pace of the decline in retailers' billet stocks was slightly slower than in the prior week, with the total billet inventories across the four commercial warehouses and two ports Mysteel monitors falling 123,100 tonnes or 10.3% on week to 1.06 million tonnes as of April 6.
Regarding supply, daily production of billet among the 30 steelmakers in Tangshan under Mysteel's survey totalled 55,000 t/d over March 31-April 6, dipping 1,000 t/d or 1.8% on week in response to the slower procurement of re-rollers.
During the same period, however, the capacity utilization rate of the 126 blast furnaces in the city Mysteel monitors edged up by another 0.3 percentage point on week to 77.1%.
Source:Mysteel Global
