Rebar output among the 137 Chinese steel mills Mysteel regularly tracks rebounded on week over February 26-March 4, with the production volume rising by around 5% or 82,100 tonnes on week at 1.73 million tonnes, according to the latest weekly survey results. The sample week was the first following the end of the country's nine-day Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday on February 23, Mysteel Global notes.
During the sample week, work on most construction sites had gradually resumed by the Chinese Lantern Festival on March 3 and businesses had reopened, with the result that some steel mills switched some steelmaking facilities back online over the survey period. This is given as the primary reason for the recovery in rebar output.
The run rate among the sampled mills averaged 35.7% this week, mounting by 3.6 percentage points on week, while the rebar rolling capacity utilization rate among those sampled mills averaged 38% during the same period, also gaining by 1.8 percentage points on week, the results of another Mysteel survey showed.
By province, steelmakers in Southwest China's Sichuan, East China's Jiangsu, and South China's Guangdong provinces contributed the most to the production gain, according to Mysteel's survey results.
Though recovering to some extent, construction industry demand for rebar remained subdued, which caused inventories to accumulate over the week, albeit at a slower pace, as Mysteel Global reported.
Rebar stocks held in commercial warehouses in the 35 Chinese cities under Mysteel's coverage totaled 6.38 million tonnes as of March 5, jumping by 12.3% or 699,900 tonnes on week from the level on February 26.
Spot rebar prices fluctuated within a narrow band over the week, mainly reflecting the pressure posed by high retail inventories after the CNY break.
On March 5, Mysteel assessed the national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar at Yuan 3,301/tonne ($478/t), down by a tiny Yuan 4/t from the level on February 26.
Source:Mysteel Global
