Rebar Demand Weakened Again Amid Qingming Holiday and Plummeting Steel Prices

SHANGHAI, Apr 11 (SMM) - SMM data showed that rebar consumption decreased 223,000 mt or 6.7% on the week, while HRC consumption increased 74,000 mt or 2.3%.

Daily average trade volume of construction steel fell 12,000 mt on the week to 163,600 mt last week.

Due to the impact of poor weather and Qingming holiday, terminal demand for rebar weakened. In addition, falling futures and spot prices weighed on the speculative purchases, resulting in a significant drop in the overall demand for rebar last week. The demand for rebar is likely to recover this week, but the increase is expected to be limited owing to the rainy season. In terms of HRC, the decline in social inventory of HRC in 69 warehouses slowed down compared with the previous week as the downstream demand was depressed by falling HRC prices and Qingming holiday. The terminal demand has not been fully released after the steel price drop. Specifically, the recovery of manufacture industry is still relatively slow, accompanied with poor infrastructure construction sector.