Steel Metal Price Update

Last week, the international steel market prices as a whole picked up. Egyptian billet demand is still good, the buyer’s inquiry increased slightly, compared with the Turkish buyer’s inquiry offer has no competitive advantage, under the premise of considering the price factor, Russian resources are preferred to export to Egypt. Sheet metal, due to the Easter holiday in Europe, export demand is not good. Vietnamese buyers prefer imported resources with price advantages.

Chinese Steel FOB Price (Unit: USD/ton)
Item	Port	Price on April 12
Hot rolled steel(SS400)	Tianjin Port	515
Cold rolled steel(SPCC)	Tianjin Port	602
Hot-dip galvanization（DX51D）	Tianjin Port	663
Rebar (B500B)	Zhangjiagang	510
H-beam (SS4000）	Tianjin Port	545

Steel Metal Latest Price

Hot Rolled Coil: Over the past week, Chinese steel mills’ and traders’ hot rolled coil quotations have maintained divergent trends. The quotation of a north-eastern steel mill for SS400 hot rolled coil is maintained at $560/ton FOB, and the transaction level is $550/ton FOB. A north-western steel mill with the same specification of hot coil fell from $545/ton FOB last month to $535/ton FOB. The Q195 hot rolled coil rose from $494/ton CFR Vietnam to $515/ton CFR, the Q235 price rose by $10/tonne and the Q355B price rose by $28/ton. According to feedback from a Vietnamese stockholder, local traders are currently inclined to buy directly from Chinese steel mills. Since February, the Vietnamese dong has depreciated steadily, and the central parity rate of the US dollar against the Vietnamese dong was 24,991 on 11 April, a month-on-month appreciation of 1.4%. To avoid the risk of exchange rate fluctuations, traders tend to settle in renminbi. African demand is reasonable, with SS400 hot-rolled trading at a level of $530/ton FOB.

International Hot Rolled Steel Price (Unit: USD/ton)
Market	Price as of April 12, 2024
American Midwest Steel Factory price	945
American Import (CFR)	840
EU steel factory price	705
European Union Imports (CFR)	625
Japan Export (FOB)	540
Turkey Exports (FOB)	600
China Export (FOB)	515
India Export (FOB)	560
Southeast Asia Import (CFR)	525

Medium plate: Last week, the price of the medium plate was stable and weak. A Northwest steel plant SS400 medium plate from last month’s $575/ton FOB down to $565/ton FOB. An East China steel mill’s quote for the same specification was down to $570/tonne FOB from $575/tonne FOB last week. Tangshan Advantage SS400 medium plate can be traded at $545-$550/tonne FOB and is mainly sold to Southeast Asia and the Middle East. In the African market, the Q235 medium plate can be traded at $550-$555/ton FOB.

Rebar: Last week, some mainland rebar was traded in Hong Kong at $515/ton CFR, so this week some Hong Kong rebar buyers expected the price to be $515/ton CFR. However, due to the popularity of futures, the mainland rebar export price has risen, steel mills are quoting $535/ton FOB, and Vietnam’s offer is in line with China. There is now a wide gap in expected prices between sellers and buyers. As for wire, which is influenced by futures, export offers for wire have also risen this week. Some steel mills are offering $530-$550/ton FOB for low-carbon wire and $560/tonne FOB for high-carbon wire. However, overseas demand has not picked up significantly due to factors such as the Eid al-Fitr holiday. China’s domestic demand is still relatively depressed, some northern steel mills said that the current wire orders are still relatively rare, mainly due to the reduction of wire production to support prices. Overseas quotation, this week, a mainstream steel mill in Indonesia also raised the wire export quotation, the current price of $510/tonne FOB, up $10/tonne week on week.

Rebar Prices In major global markets (Unit: USD/ton)
Market	Price as of April 12, 2024
American Midwest Steel Factory price	910
American Import (CFR)	850
EU steel factory price	680
European Union Imports (CFR)	650
Turkey Exports (FOB)	590
Southeast Asia Import (CFR)	513
China Export (FOB)	510

Billet: Last week, there was an increase in the number of overseas buyers, including Cambodia and Turkey, the main demand specification is 5SP. However, in terms of price, there is still some difference between the domestic export quotation and the expected price from overseas buyers this week, for Cambodian buyers, the specification is 5sp 150*150, CFR Kampot port. A request for billets for shipment in May is quoted at $535/ton CFR by one steel mill. Some steel mills said that the current performance of the billet export market is much lower than the Chinese domestic market, but as the Chinese billet market prices have risen this week, considering the overseas market, buyers may be in a wait-and-see state. Last week, the market price of Tangshan Qian’an billet increased by 130 RMB/ton week on week. In terms of export quotation, the price of 3sp billet is $470/ton FOB. After mid-week, due to the rising price of domestic trade.