Chinese steel plate market slow
2024-03-26 08:29:50 [Print]
BEIJING (Asian Metal) 26 Mar 24 - The domestic steel plate market performed inactively on Monday, and traders showed little confidence in the market prospect. The current prevailing prices of steel plate Q235B 14-25mm stand at RMB3,840/t (USD533/t), RMB3,970/t (USD551/t) and RMB3,900/t (USD542/t) D/P respectively in warehouses Tangshan, Shenyang and Shanghai, with the former two stable and the latter one up by RMB10/t (USD1.4/t) from last Friday. Insiders foresee slight price decline in the coming several days upon the inactive market.
"End users strictly purchase from hand to mouth, reporting insufficient orders for final products. Besides, the demand from downstream industries remains soft," noted a trader in Tangshan, Hebei, adding that downstream clients remain inactive in production dragged by shrinking profits. "A regular client just bought 50t of steel plate Q235B 14-25mm at RMB3,840/t (USD533/t) when we quoted RMB3,850/t (USD535/t) on Monday, while he at least purchased 150t at one single time previously," complained the trader. In the meantime, he pointed out that the capital shortage also restrains end users from purchasing to some degree. The trader adopts pessimistic attitude towards the market prospect and predicts a slight price decrease in the forthcoming several days.
Holding around 2,000t in stock, the trader would sell approximately 4,000t of steel plate in March and 10,000t in the first quarter of 2024. Based on the regular monthly sales volume of 6,000t, the sales volume in February achieved 2,000t.
"The demand from downstream industries remains soft and shows no signs of improving. We even do not forecast a recovering market in April," noted a trader in Shenyang, Liaoning, offering RMB3,980/t (USD553/t) with the counteroffer of RMB10/t (USD1.4/t) for steel plate Q235B 14-25mm. According to him, downstream plants maintain the low operating rates, either dragged by insufficient orders or the shrinking profits, and thus end users remain not in a hurry in purchasing. After tough negotiations, the trader just sold 100t of steel plate at RMB3,970/t (USD551/t) on Monday, and last sold 200t of the material at the same price last Friday. He thinks prices of steel plate might go down slightly in the forthcoming several days seeing the low purchasing enthusiasms of end users.
With the typical monthly sales volume of 9,000t, the trader might sell 6,000t or so of steel plate in March and 12,000t in the first three months of 2024. He holds around 4,000t of inventories at present.
A trader in Shanghai confirms the slow market. "We lifted prices of steel plate by RMB10/t (USD1.4/t) tentatively on Monday with the positive anticipation for the market prospect after the firm prices in the past week, but found it hard to conclude deals dragged by the cautious attitudes of end users," noted the trader, who sold 200t of steel plate Q235B 14-25mm at RMB3,900/t (USD542/t) on Monday, while sold 300t a day early last week. In the meantime, the trader disclosed that the supply increased gradually as nearby steel mills turned to active in production with the losses narrowed following the prices decline of raw materials. Upon the slow market, the trader believes prices of steel plate would decline slightly in the coming several days.
Based on the regular monthly sales volume of 5,000t, the trader might sell 4,000t of steel plate in March, and the sales volume in the first quarter of 2024 would achieve 11,000t. The trader roughly sold 51,000t of steel plate in 2023.
"End users strictly purchase from hand to mouth, reporting insufficient orders for final products. Besides, the demand from downstream industries remains soft," noted a trader in Tangshan, Hebei, adding that downstream clients remain inactive in production dragged by shrinking profits. "A regular client just bought 50t of steel plate Q235B 14-25mm at RMB3,840/t (USD533/t) when we quoted RMB3,850/t (USD535/t) on Monday, while he at least purchased 150t at one single time previously," complained the trader. In the meantime, he pointed out that the capital shortage also restrains end users from purchasing to some degree. The trader adopts pessimistic attitude towards the market prospect and predicts a slight price decrease in the forthcoming several days.
Holding around 2,000t in stock, the trader would sell approximately 4,000t of steel plate in March and 10,000t in the first quarter of 2024. Based on the regular monthly sales volume of 6,000t, the sales volume in February achieved 2,000t.
"The demand from downstream industries remains soft and shows no signs of improving. We even do not forecast a recovering market in April," noted a trader in Shenyang, Liaoning, offering RMB3,980/t (USD553/t) with the counteroffer of RMB10/t (USD1.4/t) for steel plate Q235B 14-25mm. According to him, downstream plants maintain the low operating rates, either dragged by insufficient orders or the shrinking profits, and thus end users remain not in a hurry in purchasing. After tough negotiations, the trader just sold 100t of steel plate at RMB3,970/t (USD551/t) on Monday, and last sold 200t of the material at the same price last Friday. He thinks prices of steel plate might go down slightly in the forthcoming several days seeing the low purchasing enthusiasms of end users.
With the typical monthly sales volume of 9,000t, the trader might sell 6,000t or so of steel plate in March and 12,000t in the first three months of 2024. He holds around 4,000t of inventories at present.
A trader in Shanghai confirms the slow market. "We lifted prices of steel plate by RMB10/t (USD1.4/t) tentatively on Monday with the positive anticipation for the market prospect after the firm prices in the past week, but found it hard to conclude deals dragged by the cautious attitudes of end users," noted the trader, who sold 200t of steel plate Q235B 14-25mm at RMB3,900/t (USD542/t) on Monday, while sold 300t a day early last week. In the meantime, the trader disclosed that the supply increased gradually as nearby steel mills turned to active in production with the losses narrowed following the prices decline of raw materials. Upon the slow market, the trader believes prices of steel plate would decline slightly in the coming several days.
Based on the regular monthly sales volume of 5,000t, the trader might sell 4,000t of steel plate in March, and the sales volume in the first quarter of 2024 would achieve 11,000t. The trader roughly sold 51,000t of steel plate in 2023.
