China's rebar output rises 3% WoW

The total production of rebars by the 137 Chinese steel mills that Mysteel regularly monitors increased for a second consecutive week over October 23-29 to reach 2.13 million tonnes, up by 2.7% or 55,200 tonnes on week, according to Mysteel's latest weekly survey.

During the same week, the rebar rolling capacity utilization rate and the operational rate among the sampled mills also picked up, rising by 1.2 percentage points on week to 46.6% and by 0.3 percentage points on week to 43.3% respectively, another Mysteel survey showed.

However, the combined rebar production among the 137 steelmakers still stayed at a relatively low level, as the total represented a significant on-year decline of 12.6%, mainly reflecting the sluggish domestic construction market, Mysteel Global noted.

Over January-September, the total floor area of newly launched property projects nationwide slumped by 18.9% on year to 453.99 million square meters, with starts on residential properties lower by 18.3% at 332.73 million sq m, according to National Bureau of Statistics data.

Steelmakers in East China's Anhui, Southeast China's Jiangxi and North China's Hebei provinces contributed the most to the increase in production as some resumed operations after maintenance or had adjusted their rolling plans to make more rebars during the week, according to the weekly report.

Sentiment in China's rebar market remained upbeat this week, buoyed by some positive macroeconomic news including the summit between Chinese president Xi Jinping and US president Donald Trump on October 30 that helped ease China-US trade tensions, and the US Federal Reserve's interest rate cut announced on October 29, as reported.

The improved market confidence led both spot and futures prices of rebars to post broad gains on week, prompting end-users to enter the market to procure low-priced cargoes, market sources said.

For instance, the most-traded rebar futures contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange for next January delivery closed the daytime trading session at Yuan 3,106/tonne ($439/t) on October 30, up by 1.2% on week from the settlement price on October 23.

Meanwhile, Mysteel assessed China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar at Yuan 3,265/t on October 30, also higher by a sizable Yuan 40/t on week.

Over October 24-30, the daily spot trading volume of long steel products including rebars among the 237 trading houses under Mysteel's coverage gained ground on week, with the tonnage registering 104,573 tonnes/day, up by 3.2% or 3,215 t/d on week.

Source:Mysteel Global