Baoshan Iron & Steel Co (Baosteel), the listed arm of the world's largest steelmaker China Baowu Steel Group, has decided to increase the list prices of its carbon steel hot-rolled coil (HRC) for domestic sales in June by Yuan 50/tonne ($6.9/t). This price hike comes after Baosteel had cut its HRC list prices for May, according to a release posted on its official WeChat account on May 10.
A Shanghai-based market analyst commented that the demand for Baosteel's steel products from domestic end-users and distributors remains steady overall, while its export business is even posting stronger results, prompting the company to lift prices for its core products, including hot coils.
However, the relatively high level of steel output and wavering demand growth in certain products had tempered the steel giant's enthusiasm for making widespread price hikes, the analyst explained.
On the same day, another leading Chinese steelmaker, Ansteel Iron & Steel Group (Ansteel), headquartered in Northeast China's Liaoning province, declared that it was keeping its HRC list prices unchanged for June domestic sales. Ansteel had earlier reduced its HRC prices by Yuan 100/t for May sales.
Neither Baosteel nor Ansteel disclose the actual list prices of their products in their monthly pricing policies and usually provide only the margin of price adjustment.
In contrast, Shagang Group (Shagang), China's largest privately-owned producer headquartered in Zhangjiagang, East China's Jiangsu province, does disclose its list prices at the start of each month. Earlier on May 1, Shagang chose to keep its HRC prices for May sales unchanged from April, with its list price for Q235 HRC remaining at Yuan 4,000/t and that for SPHC HRC at Yuan 4,010/t.
While recognized as China's largest electric-arc-furnace steelmaker, Shagang also operates several blast furnaces, including a large 5,800 cu metre unit commissioned last October at its Zhangjiagang works supplied by Danieli Corus.
