Posted on 12 Jun 2023
Rebar production among the 137 Chinese steel mills Mysteel regularly samples declined over June 1-7 after rising for the prior two weeks, with output dipping by 1.4% or 39,400 tonnes on week to 2.69 million tonnes, the latest survey results show. The dip in output occurred mainly because some blast-furnace producers had scaled back their production to undertake early summer maintenance during the survey period, survey respondents said.
The survey showed that steelmakers in Southwest China's Guangxi and Central China's Henan and Hunan had substantially reduced their rebar output during the survey week, while those in East China's Jiangsu and Northeast China's Jilin lifted their production.
Both rebar rolling capacity utilization and operational rates among these surveyed steelmakers decreased, with the former ending two weeks of gains, sliding 0.9 percentage point on week to 59.1%, Mysteel's data showed. The latter fell for the second week, down 0.6 percentage point on week at 45.3%.
Recently, domestic spot rebar prices have shown signs of significant recovery thanks to better market sentiment, according to the survey. Prices strengthened due to the improved steel-market fundamentals and the rebound in steelmaking raw materials prices.
As of June 8, China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a barometer of the country's steel market sentiment, had bounced back by Yuan 106/tonne ($14.9/t) on week to Yuan 3,806/t including the 13% VAT, according to Mysteel's assessment.
Meanwhile, as of Thursday Mysteel SEADEX 62% Australian Fines had firmed by $7.75/dmt on week to $112.9/dmt CFR Qingdao, hitting a 1.5-month high.
The spot trading of rebars has yet to achieve a marked pick-up though, with the daily trading volume of construction steel including rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 traders' warehouses Mysteel monitors nationwide averaging 151,918 tonnes/day over June 2-8, lower by 5% on week.
On the other hand, rebar inventories at both the 137 steel mills and among traders in the 35 Chinese cities Mysteel tracks thinned further, with the former falling for the fifth successive week by 9.2% or 207,400 tonnes on week to 2.05 million tonnes as of June 7, and the latter falling for the fifteenth straight week, lower by 2.6% or 153,300 tonnes on week to 5.7 million tonnes as of June 8.
Source:Mysteel Global
