Iron ore futures dipped at the close, despite a promising start at the morning session but only to succumbed to loss at later noon session.
The futures of Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) for January delivery then slumped by 1.32% day-on-day or down RMB 9 to RMB 673.50/mt, during the day trading session on Monday.
The rebar futures also went down by 1.02% day-on-day or down RMB 46 to RMB 4,475/mt, during the day trading session.
Flattish steel price movement for the week
Due to slow steel demand, Mysteel expected prices of rebar and wire rod to rangebound over the Dec 20-24 period, as one of the last trading weeks for the year.
Despite the slowdown of steel demand, Mysteel estimated construction activities to remain normal at the southern China with stable supply of construction steel.
However, the construction activities of northern China might face more disruption from bad weather-related issues that reduce steel consumption during the weather season.
Lower rebar output rate recorded in mid-December
Some of the slow steel demand was reflected in the declining rebar production that reached to 2.73 million mt by Dec 15, down 0.5% or 12,400 mt on-week.
The lower output was linked to slower mills’ rebar production from central and eastern China regions like Hubei, Jiangsu and Anhui provinces.
Hence, this provided some supports to the recovery of domestic rebar prices due to tight production and lower rebar inventories stored among mills.