Chinese steel futures’ prices climbed overnight and stabilised in trading during the day but dipped in the last hour. Rebar and HRC spot traders meanwhile are seeing prices move in different directions. The slowdown in construction and rainy weather across the country continue to put pressure on long steel prices, Kallanish notes.

On the Shanghai Futures Exchange the October rebar contract settled at CNY 3,031/tonne ($443.86/t), down CNY 29/t, while the same contract for hot rolled coil closed down CNY 1/t at CNY 3,194/t.

On the spot market, offered prices for rebar are still higher than for HRC. The gap narrowed however to around CNY 100/t on Thursday with both products having seen lower volumes traded compared with early June, due to inclement weather or increasing prices.

Market sentiment suggests that the general rebar price will remain in slow decline over the coming weeks, as traders become cautious in terms of building stocks and target their efforts into making fast sales.