Posted on 14 Feb 2025
China's demand for construction steel is expected to recover gradually in the weeks ahead, now that the country's Chinese New Year holiday celebrations are over and building contractors are resuming work on projects, the results of Mysteel's latest survey released on Thursday suggest.
The prediction was chiefly based on actual volumes of construction steel bought by domestic end-users last month and their purchase plans for February.
During January, construction steel items purchased by the more than 200 construction enterprises nationwide under Mysteel's regular tracking reached 4.35 million tonnes, slumping by 26% from the previous month. Their planned buying volume for this month is estimated to reach 4.58 million tonnes, higher by 5.3% from the actual procurement tonnage in January, the findings showed.
Sentiment in the domestic steel market has improved to some extent with the gradual recovery of activity in the physical market, and work on more projects may commence due to improvements in project funding, survey respondents remarked.
Market participants are hopeful that the upcoming 'Two Sessions' political meetings in Beijing in early March will see some new economic stimulus measures introduced, Mysteel Global learned.
However, the executive order that U.S. President Donald Trump signed on Monday to impose a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports into the country may create some difficulties for China's steel market, as reported.
Many end-users are still cautious about building up steel stocks except to purchase products to fulfil their immediate needs, Mysteel Global notes. As a result, domestic long steel prices have remained rangebound since the end of the CNY break.
As of February 12, the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, a bellwether of domestic steel-market sentiment, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,453/tonne ($473/t) including the 13% VAT, lower by Yuan 21/t from that on January 27, the last working day before the long holiday.
Source:Mysteel Global
