Falling steel and pipe prices in China cross three-month milestone

Domestic steel prices in China for all products have been dropping on a daily basis for almost 90 days since mid-December 2013. The fall in prices during this period varied for different elements, but the rebar suffered the most.

Although rebar prices in Shanghai have fallen from 15 December 2013 to the present by almost 15 percent to about CNY 3,070 per tonne from CNY 3,600 per tonne, HRC prices in Shanghai lost only 5 percent over the period, reaching CNY 3,430 per tonne from CNY 3,630. CNY. By the way, billet prices in Shanghai fell by about 12 percent during this period, thus narrowing the gap between billet and rebar prices narrowed from CNY 400 to CNY 250 per tonne, reflecting pressure on steelmakers' profitability.

On the other hand, after 63.5 /63 percent iron ore prices gained a recovery of around $ 4 a tonne, climbing back to $ 110 a tonne for shipping to a port in China from a recent low of $ 104 a tonne. However, due to the current banking credit crisis, owners of iron ore cargoes are in a state of panic with more than 100 million tons of iron ore on inventory in Chinese ports. In the near future, they may face huge losses of $ 10-15 per tonne, although prices in the Chinese metallurgical sector have remained unchanged over the past few days.