Flat steel product analysis/Regional highlights: China

摘要

China's domestic markets for HR coil were especially volatile during September. Having started the month strongly, prices fell back before the end of the second week of September; they recovered almost immediately, before slumping once again prior to the end of the month. The end result is that HR and CR coil prices on China's domestic market are not substantially higher than they were at the end of August. Export prices have behaved rather differently. Chinese mills' offer prices for shipments of coil have risen significantly over the last month, reaching levels that are largely unacceptable to international buyers under current market conditions. Export prices have started softening over the last week, but they remain considerably higher than they were at the start of the September. On domestic markets, prices for HR coil of thicknesses between 4-9mm have been particularly unstable over the last month. In late August, offer prices for 5.5mm thick, grade Q235 HR coil on the Beijing and Shanghai markets stood at around Rmb4,180-4,230/tonne (546-560 dollars/tonne). By the second week of September, HR coil produced by Tangshan (4.5mm thick, Q235) was being offered for around Rmb4,350/tonne on the Beijing market. In Shanghai, 5.5mm HR coil material - produced by Anshan - was being offered at around Rmb4,460/tonne - which represented an increase of around Rmb300/tonne on price levels two weeks earlier. By the end of the month, spot market offer prices for similar grades of HR coil in both Shanghai and Beijing had fallen back to around Rmb4,150/tonne.