Shagang Group (Shagang), China's leading privately-owned steelmaker, has decided to hold its long-product list prices for sales during February 11-20 from the previous ten-day period, the company announced Wednesday.
Consequently, Shagang continues to keep its price for HRB400 16-20mm rebar at Yuan 3,450/tonne ($499/t), its HPB300 6-10mm wire rods stay priced at Yuan 3,470/t, and its HRB400 8-10mm bar-in-coil is still at Yuan 3,560/t, according to its announcement. All prices are EXW and include the 13% VAT.
Shagang, also the country's largest electric-arc-furnace steelmaker, updates its longs list prices three times a month to better reflect market dynamics, as Mysteel Global has reported.
The East China's Jiangsu-based steel group has maintained its long steel prices at the same levels for 15 consecutive sales cycles, a move market watchers suggest points to the company's cautious approach toward the near-term market.
The major reason for Shagang's price rollover in the middle ten days of February is the quiet spot long steel market and the standstill in spot transactions before the imminent Chinese New Year holiday which takes place from February 15-23. The market focus has largely turned to the pace of demand recovery after the holiday, leading to minimal fluctuations in long steel prices, according to market sources.
Most traders and construction workers have already left their worksites to celebrate the traditional holiday, and downstream demand has almost dried up consequentially. The daily spot trading volume of rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 trading houses under Mysteel's tracking averaged 34,882 tonnes/day during the first ten days in February, plunging by 50.4% or 35,432 t/d from the late-January period.
Shrinking demand also imposed downward pressure on long steel prices in early February. For instance, the spot price of HRB400E 20mm rebar in Shanghai – a major market for Shagang's long steel products – was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 3,220/t including the 13% VAT on February 10, down by Yuan 30/t from the level on January 30.
Source:Mysteel Global
