Posted on 07 Aug 2023
Rebar production among the 137 Chinese steelmakers regularly monitored by Mysteel declined for the second week over July 27-August 2, slipping by 1.6% or 43,400 tonnes on week to nearly 2.7 million tonnes, the latest weekly survey showed.
However, rebar output during the survey week was higher by 9.8% from the 2.46 million tonnes produced in the corresponding period of last year, according to Mysteel's data.
During the period, steel mills in Southwest China's Sichuan and East China's Jiangsu contributed the most to the on-week fall in rebar output, with most of the makers being blast-furnace operators, according to survey respondents.
Over the survey period, both rebar rolling capacity utilization and operational rates among these surveyed mills decreased, with the former slipping for the second week, down 0.9 percentage point on week at 59.1%, and the latter slowing for the third week, down 0.3 percentage point during the same period to reach 46.2%, Mysteel's surveys found.
Chinese rebar prices in both the physical and futures markets lost ground this week, with the country's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar for example, losing Yuan 63/tonne ($8.8/t) on week to Yuan 3,834/t including the 13% VAT according to Mysteel's assessment.
" The bullish market sentiment – created earlier by the announcement of favorable macroeconomy policies – had cooled down, which caused steel prices to show signs of softening afterwards," said a market source. "Spot steel trading is poor as well, given the adverse weather in many regions," he added.
The daily trading volume of construction steel including rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 trading houses nationwide tracked by Mysteel averaged 126,493 tonnes/day over July 28-August 3, slumping by 19.7% or 31,010 t/d on week.
On the other hand, lower steel sales saw rebar stocks at both the Chinese steel mills and traders mount, the data show. The tonnage held by the 137 steelmakers reversed up 1.9% or 37,500 tonnes on week to 1.97 million tonnes as of August 2, while that at the commercial warehouses in the 132 cities Mysteel checks increased for the sixth week, rising by 3.4% or 193,900 tonnes on week to 5.98 million tonnes as of August 3, a two-month high.
Source:Mysteel Global
