Steel market prices on August 1, 2022

Construction steel: On August 1, the average price of 20mm grade 3 seismic rebar in 31 major cities across the country was 4,300 yuan/ton, up 113 yuan/ton from the previous trading day. In the short term, on the one hand, the current production is at the low point of the year, and the pressure on the supply side in the later period is not large; Recovery, short-term fundamentals are expected to continue to improve.

Hot-rolled coil: On August 1, the average price of 4.75mm hot-rolled coil in 24 major cities across the country was 4,099 yuan/ton, an increase of 117 yuan/ton from the previous trading day. The fundamentals of the steel market are generally improving, and steel mills are increasing their efforts to resume production, but the recovery of molten iron is slow, the marginal recovery of steel demand, and the continued depletion of inventories. The 7.28 meeting of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee increased financial support for the delivery of real estate insurance to stimulate market sentiment. China's official PMI was 49% in July, lower than expected, indicating that the level of manufacturing prosperity has declined. The steel PMI in July was 33.0%, down 3.2 percentage points from the previous month, and the operation of the steel industry continued to be sluggish. The negative feedback on the industrial operating rate brought about by the fall in commodity prices is more obvious. The price and production index fell more than new orders, and there may be limited room for further decline in follow-up demand. After the negative feedback, production has recently shown some signs of recovery.

Cold-rolled coils: On August 1, the average price of 1.0mm cold coils in 24 major cities across the country was 4,553 yuan/ton, up 83 yuan/ton from the previous trading day. At present, Shanghai is affected by the epidemic, and the overall operation of the Shanghai steel market is not good. Some warehouses are in a closed state. All personnel and vehicles in the warehouses that can pick up goods need to hold a 24-hour nucleic acid negative report to pick up the goods. Now Shanghai is affected by the epidemic, and some of them originally purchased from Shanghai. Customers are now choosing to purchase raw materials in Wuxi, and traders have reported that the recent market transactions have been relatively good, and Wuxi's large households are basically reducing their warehouses slightly. In terms of mentality, the black futures market has been red recently, and the pessimism in the market for a month has been eased, and some traders have expectations for the August market.

Medium and heavy plate: On August 1, the average price of 20mm common plate in 24 major cities across the country was 4,318 yuan/ton, up 62 yuan/ton from the previous trading day. From the perspective of the supply side, some steel mills plan to start repairing and reducing production due to the recovery of finished product profits. It is expected that there will be room for downside in short-term medium plate production, but it will not be too large. In terms of inventory, the recent progress of destocking in the distribution market is acceptable, the space for superimposing the north-south price difference is small, and the arrival of northern resources is not much.