[SMM Brief Review] Futures Closed Up 1.34%, Destocking of High-Grade Ore Was Significant, and Structural Tightness Continued to Intensify

This week, multiple news items on the raw material front successively boosted market sentiment, with finished steel prices rebounding from lows in phases and generally showing a bottoming-out trend. At the start of the week, the weak fundamentals of finished steel were hard to change, and ferrous metals prices had overshot to the bottom. Subsequently, however, coal mines in Shanxi were affected by rainfall, and circuit failures led to production suspensions at some mines, sentimentally driving ferrous metals prices to bottom out. Mid-week, there were rumors of a 48-hour strike at BHP, with limited short-term tangible impact, but sentiment...

On August 7 China's steel export prices were mostly steady with flat products extending gains. Some flat-product export prices rose 1 USD/tonne day on day, with HRC transactions at 482-485 USD/tonne; Chinese futures rose for successive sessions in the second half of the week and export FOB prices followed, but traders reported limited actual business after the increase, while at the mill end some traders were buying against earlier orders. Billet export FOB prices were steady, with Jiangyin port offers at 450-455 USD/tonne; offers are largely referenced to the rebar futures basis, overseas enquiries are limited and competition is fierce, with only some exporters covering earlier short billet positions. Rebar export offers at Tianjin port were steady with transactions at 474-480 USD/tonne, as overseas enquiries were unremarkable, wait-and-see sentiment prevailed and domestic traders found exporting difficult.