Posted on 03 Dec 2024
Shagang Group (Shagang), China's largest privately-owned steelmaker headquartered in Zhangjiagang in East China's Jiangsu province, is keeping its list prices for long steel products such as rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil unchanged for sales during the first ten days of December, after having cut them by Yuan 150/tonne ($20.6/t) for the prior price period, according to the company's announcement on December 1.
Consequently, Shagang's HRB400 16-20 mm rebar is still priced at Yuan 3,700/t for sales during December 1-10, its HPB300 6-10mm high-speed wire rod stays at Yuan 3,620/t, and its HRB400 8-10mm bar-in-coil price remains at Yuan 3,710/t, all in terms of EXW and including the 13% VAT.
A Shanghai-based market insider commented that Shagang's decision to roll over list prices reflected its wait-and-see market approach. "Although the steel market has shown signs of a seasonal lull, many market participants have relatively high expectations that Beijing will unveil new stimulus measures this month," he said.
The annual Central Economic Work Conference, where Chinese leaders will decide economic priorities for 2025, will convene this month. Typically serving as a prelude, the Politburo's meeting on economic work sets the stage for this agenda-setting conference, which is expected to take place around early December, Mysteel Global notes.
China's steel-market fundamentals have been relatively weak lately with both demand and production shrinking, and this has weighed on domestic steel prices. As of November 29, China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether for spot steel market sentiment, had lost Yuan 15/t from November 20 to sit at Yuan 3,445/t including the 13% VAT, according to Mysteel's assessment.
Meanwhile, Mysteel's survey on the daily trading volume of rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 steel trading houses it monitors regularly showed that trading averaged 111,549 tonnes/day in late November, lower by 3.8% or 4,405 t/d from the mid-November average.
Shagang also released its latest monthly pricing policy for its flat steel products for December sales, Mysteel Global learned. The company also kept its list prices for hot-rolled coil unchanged from November. Thus, its prices for Q235 5.5*1500mm and SPHC 4.0*1250mm hot coils stand at Yuan 3,800/t and Yuan 3,810/t respectively this month, both including the 13% VAT.
Source:Mysteel Global
