Posted on 23 Apr 2024
Shagang Group (Shagang), China's leading private steelmaker headquartered in East China's Jiangsu province, has raised its list prices of rebar, wire rod, and bar-in-coil by Yuan 50/tonne ($6.9/t) for sales over April 21-30, the company announced on Sunday. This was the first time for the mill to raise its list prices this year, Mysteel Global notes.
With the latest pricing policy, Shagang's HRB400 16-20mm rebar is now priced at Yuan 3,970/t, and its prices for HPB300 6-10mm high-speed wire rod and HRB400 8-10mm bar-in-coil have been raised to Yuan 4,020/t and Yuan 4,010/t respectively over the same period, all in terms of EXW and including the 13% VAT.
The steel giant's latest price lift largely reflected the improved market sentiment, in tandem with the uptrend seen in domestic spot steel prices and resilient steelmaking raw materials costs, a market source said.
For example, by April 19 the spot price of HRB400E 20mm rebar in Shanghai – a major market for Shagang's long steel products – had jumped by Yuan 110/t from the price on April 10 to Yuan 3,640/t and including the 13% VAT, according to Mysteel's assessment.
Meanwhile, Mysteel's iron ore index for SEADEX 62% Australian Fines had gained $10.75/dmt during the same period to $116.9/dmt CFR Qingdao.
On the demand side, Mysteel's survey across the 237 Chinese steel trading houses it tracks nationwide showed that during mid-April, their daily trading volume of long steel items including rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil had edged up by 1.8% or 2,891 tonnes/day from early April to average 161,870 t/d.
"The consumption of long steel in some regions has been restrained by frequent rainfalls recently," another market insider observed. But he noted that long steel fundamentals have stayed relatively healthy on low output, and the steady destocking pace of steel inventories also lent some support to spot longs prices.
Source:Mysteel Global
