On December 16-22, 137 Chinese steel producers showed that their total rebar output reached a 2.5-month low of 2.65 million tonnes after three weeks of declines, or down by 3.1% or 84,200 tonnes on week as against the prior week's mere 0.5% dip. Harsher restrictions on mills in North China's Tangshan and Handan city were blamed.
During the survey week, both rebar rolling capacity utilization and the operational rates among the surveyed mills slipped for the third straight week, with the former inching down 1.9 percentage points to 58.1%, and the latter by 1 percentage point to 49.5%, according to Mysteel's tracking.
China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar, under Mysteel's assessment, stayed largely rangebound last week, and saw an on-week decline of Yuan 20/tonne ($3.1/t) in total to reach Yuan 4,843/t including the 13% VAT as of December 24.
Last week, spot trading of construction steel including rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the 237 Chinese trading houses Mysteel surveys reached an average of 152,946 tonnes/day, or down 25,096 t/d from the prior week's average, indicating the lackluster demand due to falling temperatures across the country and resurgent local COVID-19 cases.
In tandem with the lower output, rebar stocks at the 137 Chinese mills under Mysteel's survey decreased further, and as of December 22, had hit a new low of 1.78 million tonnes since early February 2019, or down by 7.5% or 143,500 tonnes on week.
Rebar tonnage at commercial warehouses in the 35 Chinese cities Mysteel monitors trended down for an eleventh successive week, declining by another 5.3% or 192,500 tonnes to 3.42 million tonnes as of December 23, a new low since early January 2020.
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