Posted on 09 Jul 2024
Billet prices in Tangshan city in North China's Hebei province eked out small gains after a choppy week over July 1-7, while demand for the semis turned weak with more local re-rollers halting their production last week, according to Mysteel's weekly survey.
Mysteel's assessment of the Q235 150mm square billet price in Tangshan settled at Yuan 3,310/tonne ($455/t) EXW and including the 13% VAT as of July 7 after touching Yuan 3,370/t on July 4, finally higher by Yuan 10/t on week.
Daily billet consumption among the 48 re-rollers in Tangshan that Mysteel tracks declined by 18,300 tonnes/day on week to average 34,400 t/d over June 27-July 3, as some suspended operations for maintenance in reaction to deepening losses on finished steel sales, according to the survey.
Meanwhile, billet inventories held by these sampled re-rollers mounted by 23,500 tonnes on week to 354,000 tonnes as of July 3, the survey data showed.
On the other hand, billet supply increased last week, with the output volume among the 25 steelmakers in Tangshan under Mysteel's monitoring averaging 51,000 t/d over June 28-July 4, marking the highest level of this year. A few local steel mills preferred to produce the semis rather than finished steel products, sources said.
The average losses on billet sales borne by the 10 integrated steel mills in Tangshan that Mysteel checks stood at Yuan 33/t on July 5, narrowing by Yuan 6/t on week, while the per-tonne cost the same mills incurred when producing the semis averaged Yuan 3,363/t including the VAT last week, higher by Yuan 24/t on week.
The slowdown in re-rollers' billet procurements led the total billet stocks across the four commercial warehouses and two ports in Tangshan Mysteel canvasses to mount further by 89,400 tonnes on week to hit a three-month high of 1.08 million tonnes as of July 4, according to the survey.
Source:Mysteel Global
