Near-term Outlook on China’s Key Steel Products

Below is the brief near-term outlook of the five key steel products Mysteel shares on a weekly basis based on a series of related surveys and communication with market participants.

Rebar & wire rod: Construction steel prices are expected to be rangebound instead of substantial increases over March 23-27, as finished steel inventories at the traders still hovered at a record high level of 18.4 MnT as of March 20 despite having reversed down 2.1% on week over March 16-20 after consecutive rises in the previous 15 weeks. Spot steel trading has been recovering progressively but finished steel production from Chinese steel mills have been on the rise too.

Hot-rolled coil: The price may linger at a low level amid weak demand over March 23-27, and most traders may be more than willing to compromise on offering prices in exchange for higher trading volumes. The probability of the Chinese steel mills to cut down on their HRC output, however, may support the price to bottom out soon.

Cold-rolled coil: The price may see a modest downward correction over the last week of March, as both production and inventories at the surveyed mills continued to grow over March 16-20, which offset any positive signs from the 5.5% week-on-week drop in traders’ CRC stocks.

Medium plate: The price may continue to wobble modestly over March 23-27 amid the slower-than-expected recovery in downstream demand.

Sections: The price may stay weak over March 23-27, as some mills had cut EXW prices over March 16-20 and the traders opted to trim their offer prices to attract more deals.

This article has been published under an article exchange agreement between Mysteel Global and SteelMint.