According to the data released by MOFCOM, China's domestic steel price had decreased by 0.4% for the week ended on July 3 compared to prior week and by 1.8% vs early June, which was also the third consecutive week decline. For instance, the price for non-oriented silicon steel sheet with the thickness of 0.5 mm, medium plate with the thickness of 10 mm and channel steel with specification of 8# had dropped by 1.8%, 1% and 0.9% respectively week over week.
For this summer, a few estate developers had curtailed their procurement orders due to the bad weather conditions, consequently, the construction steel inventories had ramped up step by step. Accordingly, the construction steel inventories in China's 29 main cities had come to 6.8535 million t last week, rising by 16000 t week over week, which was also the first increase since middle March.
On the other hand, China's registered steelmakers had contributed an average daily crude steel output of 1.6397 million t of crude steel in middle June, jumping by 15600 t as compared to early June and by 1% on a month on month comparison basis. In addition, it was reported that Shagang Group and Rizhao Steel had decided to push down their EXW prices for the shipments of July.
In this context, China's steel price may continue inching down in the upcoming future.