Posted on 26 Nov 2024
By November 24, the price of Q235 150mm square billet in Tangshan in North China's Hebei province, the country's largest steel production hub, had recovered by Yuan 50/tonne ($6.9/t) on week to reach Yuan 3,090/t EXW and including the 13% VAT, Mysteel's assessment showed.
On the production side, daily billet output among 23 steelmakers in Tangshan Mysteel monitors had picked up by 4,500 t/d on week to reach a near a one-month high of 45,100 t/d on average over November 15-21, mainly as some mills switched to producing the semis while conducting maintenance on their bar and rod rolling mills, according to Mysteel's weekly survey.
The average cost incurred by the ten major mills in Tangshan that Mysteel follows eased by Yuan 26/t on week to Yuan 3,152/t including the 13% VAT last week, and their average loss on billet sales stood at Yuan 92/t as of November 22, narrowing by Yuan 46/t from the previous week.
As for demand, daily billet consumption among the 44 re-rollers in Tangshan that Mysteel follows declined by 5,200 t/d on week to average 55,800 t/d over November 14-20.
Local re-rollers saw their profit margins on finished steel sales shrink last week, prompting many to scale back their production, survey respondents said. This in turn required them to lessen the procurement of semis.
As of November 20, total billet stocks held by the 44 re-rollers had thinned by 48,500 tonnes on week to 588,500 tonnes, Mysteel's data showed.
On the other hand, billet inventories across the four commercial warehouses and two ports in Tangshan that Mysteel checks continued to trend downwards, falling by 138,000 tonnes on week to hit a 4.5-month low of 989,200 tonnes by November 21.
Source:Mysteel Global
