Data: SHFE, DCE market movement (Mar 27)

[SMM Daily HRC Trading] On March 27, the total daily HRC trading volume of sample enterprises in four cities tracked by SMM (Shanghai, Lecong, Tianjin, and Ningbo) was 14,490 mt, up 360 mt day on day, or 2.5%, with solar-calendar YoY growth of 28.57% and lunar-calendar YoY growth of 9.77%.

This week, News during the week mainly centered on iron ore negotiations. Under bearish market expectations, ore prices weakened accordingly, while coking coal and coke also declined due to the pullback in crude oil. Returning to HRC supply and demand, production fluctuated rangebound this week. Social inventory as a whole maintained a destocking trend.Traders' purchase pace was moderate, and mill inventory turned from rising to falling. Downstream demand remained lukewarm, with low purchase willingness for HRC, CRC, galvanizing and other products in large volumes. Looking ahead,HRC's fundamentals were unlikely to show any bright spots, and it is expected to continue moving sideways next week in line with the cost side.

[SMM Steel] The IndiaGreen Steel Coalition (IGSC) stated that India must strengthen its domestic scrap collection and processing infrastructure to support the transition toward secondary steelmaking. India currently consumes around 41 mt of scrap, accounting for 23% of crude steel production, while demand could exceed 200 mt by 2047 as scrap use targets rise to 50%. However, a potential 40–50 mt supply gap may increase reliance on imports, making scrap a strategic resource for India’s decarbonization and green steel transition.