With the overall steel market being driven last week by rising consumption and expectations for the peak season in September, Chinese hot rolled coil also rose slowly, Kallanish notes.

In Shanghai on Friday afternoon, 5.5x1,500mm Q235B HRC was traded at around CNY 3,200-3,220/tonne ($451-454/t), up CNY 20/t on-week. On the Shanghai Futures Exchange, the most-traded contract for HRC shifted to the January 2025 contract, which lost just CNY 1/t from Thursday but gained CNY 86/t on-week to CNY 3,339/t.

In Wuxi on Friday afternoon, 20x2,000mm Q235B plate prices were assessed at around CNY 3,290-3,310/t, up CNY 40/t from the prior assessment.

The overall market recovery notably helped Chinese HRC values increase last week, while fundamentals for HRC have only improved slightly and were worse than those of rebar.

Total HRC inventory declined on-week, but this was significantly supported by a reduction in production. Weekly apparent HRC consumption fell, while other products saw an increase. This has had some impact on HRC market sentiment, while production cuts are being reversed as prices recover.

Export prices also grew slowly amid some basic transactions and no additional surprises. Later last week, a trading company in East China was heard selling Q195/SS400 HRC at around $472/t cfr Vietnam, which was exactly the same level as bids given by buyers days earlier. Another source heard a deal at $477/t cfr Vietnam, but this was not verified.

On Friday, offers of the cheapest Chinese Q195 rebounded to the level of nearly $480/t cfr Vietnam.

As for SAE 1006 HRC, Japanese sellers even accepted deal prices of $500/t cfr Gulf Cooperation Council. Chinese exporters issued offers of cargoes containing 50% 2mm products at over $480/t cfr Vietnam last week, with limited interest shown by overseas customers.

“I only accepted bids at $475/t cfr Vietnam from customers in the middle of this week [through 30 August],” a Hangzhou-based exporter said on Friday. “The situation is bad now.”

Kallanish assessed 2mm SAE 1006 HRC at $480-485/t fob China on 30 August, up $5/t on-week.