Chinese HRC falls on market panic
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China’s poor real estate performance in July and the market panic spreading from collapsing iron ore prices dragged down Chinese hot rolled coil prices last week. Prices finally saw a limited rebound on Friday however, Kallanish notes. Exports were in lull as usual because of uncompetitive high price.
In Shanghai on Friday afternoon, 5.5x1,500mm Q235 HRC was traded at around CNY 5,660-5,690/tonne ($871-875/t), down CNY 155/t from the previous Friday. On the Shanghai Futures Exchange, January 2022 HRC futures were the most traded contract on Tuesday and closed CNY 69/t higher than Thursday and CNY 307/t lower than the previous Friday at CNY 5,458/t.
Transactions remained at low levels, while production was not slowing down fast enough to reduce the inventory burden on steel mills. End users chose to hold off buying as they expected continuous price decreases this week. Market participants are now worried that the turning point in demand will come later than previously expected.
Some Chinese steel mills have confirmed lower HRC export quotations. Offers of SS400 HRC given by steelmakers such as Benxi Iron & Steels fell to $1,000/t fob China, a drop of about $20-30/t from two weeks ago.
The most competitive SS400 HRC offers came to $989/t cfr Vietnam, however, “this is also useless cause bids for Indian offers of $910-915/t cfr are $900/t cfr, and it’s difficult for them to make a deal too,” a sources notes.
In terms of other markets in Asia such as South Korea, no bids could be received by Chinese steelmakers there either. “It is desperate now,” one exporter told Kallanish.
Kallanish assessed 2mm SAE1006 HRC at $925-935/t fob China on 20 August, a drop of $5/t compared to the previous week.
By Kallanish Team