Baosteel has again cut its November flat product list prices by Yuan 100/t despite the increase in futures and iron ore prices over Friday and Monday. The move reflects underlying weak market sentiment, which has been hit by further statements suggesting there is to be no government economic stimulus, as well as signs of further distress among real estate firms, Kallanish notes.

Baosteel’s new list price for Q235 5.5mm hot rolled coil was Yuan 3,872/t ($630/t), while SPCC 1mm cold rolled coil and DC51D+Z 1mm hot dip-galvanized were at Yuan 4,326/t and Yuan 5,087/t respectively.

Market sentiment has been hit further this week after the chief economist at the People’s Bank of China, Ma Jun, told the IMF that the bank viewed the chance of a crash in real estate as small, and that the government would continue to avoid stimulus as local governments were already over-leveraged.

Meanwhile, there was further bad news in real estate as China’s Kunming-based Agile property cancelled a share issue, which was expected to be used to pay down debt. On top of this, the company says that its chief executive, Chen Zhuolin had been detained without a specified reason since 30 September. Authorities in China often detain suspects during an investigation but only specify the reasons once they are ready to bring charges, Kallanish notes.