Posted on 17 Oct 2023
Billet prices in Tangshan in North China's Hebei province decreased on week over October 9-15, mainly due to lackluster demand from local re-rollers who were not keen to procure the semis given their own tepid sales of finished steel, according to Mysteel's new weekly survey.
As of October 15, the Tangshan Q235 150mm square billet price was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,400/tonne ($466/t) EXW and including the VAT, or having fallen by Yuan 70/t on week.
Mysteel's another survey on the daily billet consumption among the 55 re-rollers it tracks showed the volume reversed down by 15.2% or 7,800 tonnes/day on week to average 43,400 t/d over October 5-11. Meanwhile, the billet stocks held by these re-rollers thinned by 32,400 tonnes on week to 345,400 tonnes.
As for billet production, some blast-furnace producers in Tangshan had cranked up their output, with the daily billet output among the 30 steel mills under Mysteel's tracking rising by 6,800 t/d on week to 49,500 t/d over October 6-12.
During the same period, the capacity utilization rate among the 89 blast furnaces in Tangshan Mysteel follows slipped by 0.73 percentage point on week to 91.83%, the data showed.
Higher output and weak demand saw billet inventories at four commercial warehouses and two ports in Tangshan under Mysteel's tracking mount for the fourth straight week, up another 83,800 tonnes on week to hit a half-year high of 1.07 million tonnes as of October 12.
"Billet output is likely to show signs of trending downwards with mills' increased maintenance on blast furnaces and their regular overhaul plans," a Shanghai-based analyst predicted.
On October 11, the losses on billet sales borne by the 10 integrated mills in Tangshan Mysteel samples averaged Yuan 279/t, deepening by 66/t from one week earlier.
Source:Mysteel Global
