Chinese Billet Prices Surge After Tangshan Production Cuts

Towards end of last week, Tangshan announced steel & sintering production cuts of 20-50% until 1st Aug to curb air pollution. Against Friday's Chinese domestic billet prices went up by RMB 100 (USD 14-15/MT, yesterday)

Billet: Yesterday, the ex-factory price of general carbon billet in Tangshan, Changli and Qian’an went up by RMB 50 to RMB 3, 580/MT. In the early morning, Changli area saw upswing by RMB 20 to RMB 3,600/MT, and the Qian'an area rose by RMB 30 to RMB 3,610/MT. After the hike, the overall transactions of billets are plain and the prices of finished products may slightly go rise.

Mill direct sales are passable. The ex-warehouse spot dropped to RMB 3,670-3,680/MT from the early price RMB 3,690-3,700/MT including tax with some transactions on low-priced resources. Billet inventory at warehouses of Xiangyu Zhengfeng and Haiyi Hongrun is 374,200 MT, an increase of 10,900 MT. The overall transactions of finished products are weak and it is expected that the low-cost resources of billets will increase by RMB 10 in the afternoon.