Posted on 14 Aug 2023
Rebar production among the 137 Chinese steelmakers nationwide under Mysteel's weekly survey declined for the third week in a row during August 3-9, slipping by 1.5% or 41,100 tonnes on week to hit a 5.5-month low of 2.66 million tonnes. The week's total was still 5.1% higher than during the corresponding period last year though, the data showed.
Integrated mills were mostly responsible for the continuous fall in rebar output as many had commenced maintenance on blast furnaces and steelmaking facilities or switched from producing rebar to flat steel products, in response to deepening losses on rebar sales and bleak end-user demand, according to survey respondents.
Steel mills in Northeast China's Liaoning, North China's Inner Mongolia and Shanxi and Central China's Hubei and Hunan posted significant on-week declines in rebar output, the data showed.
Over the period, both rebar rolling capacity utilization and the operational rate among the surveyed producers decreased, with the former dipping for the third week, down 0.9 percentage point on week to 58.2%, and the latter slowing for a fourth week, down 0.7 percentage point during the same period to 45.6%.
Chinese spot rebar prices underwent a downward correction amid the bearish market sentiment. As of August 10, the country's national HRB400E 20mm dia rebar price, a bellwether of the country's steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at a two-month low of Yuan 3,770/tonne ($522/t) including the 13% VAT, slumping Yuan 64/t on week.
Spot sales of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 steel trading houses nationwide regularly sampled by Mysteel picked up moderately by 7.7% on week to average 136,227 tonnes/day over August 4-10, though still regarded as a low level.
Nevertheless, rebar inventories at both the 137 steel mills and among the traders Mysteel monitors in 35 cities nationwide continued mounting. Those held by the former grew for the second week by 4.3% or 84,900 tonnes on week to 2.1 million tonnes by August 9, while stocks among the latter increased for the seventh consecutive week, swelling by a small 2.2% or 130,900 tonnes on week to 6.1 million tonnes by August 10.
Source:Mysteel Global
