Chinese steel, iron ore surge over 6 pct on US-China trade ceasefire |
| 时间：2018-12-03 14:11:28 来源： 作者： |
Chinese steel, iron ore surge over 6 pct on US-China trade ceasefire
* Rebar rallies 7 pct, iron ore jumps 6 pct
* China, U.S. agree on 90-day trade truce
* Fundamentals in steel market still weak
BEIJING, Dec 3 (Reuters) - Prices of Chinese steel products and steelmaking ingredients soared more than 6 percent on Monday as a trade ceasefire between Beijing and Washington helped buoy market sentiment amid concerns over a supply glut.
Benchmark construction steel rebar futures on the Shanghai Futures Exchange rallied 7 percent to 3,842 yuan ($554.58) when market opened at 0100 GMT, clocking their best intraday gain in nearly 14 months. Shanghai hot-rolled coil futures rose 6 percent to a two-week peak.
Prices were buoyed by trade talks between Beijing and Washington which helped boost investor sentiment, said Zhuo Guiqiu, an analyst with Jinrui Futures.
Leaders of China and the United States have sealed a truce in trade war after high-stakes talks in Argentina on Sunday, with Trump agreeing to not escalating tariffs “at this time” while China agreeing to purchase more products from the United States.
“Market has seized this uncommon opportunity to correct recent backwardation on steel prices, which were dampened by extremely pessimistic outlook amid slowing economic growth,” said Zhuo.
Steelmaking raw materials also picked up alongside steel prices.
The most-active iron ore futures for January delivery jumped as much as 5.9 percent, their sharpest intraday gain since early August.
Dalian coking coal contracts rose 6.9 percent to 1,425 yuan, while coke futures peaked 7 percent on market open.
However, analysts warned that the rally might be temporary with weak market fundamentals.
Steel output is still pretty high and there has been no stimulus from the government to boost demand, said Zhuo.
Utilisation rates at Chinese steel mills dipped 0.83 percentage points to 66.71 percent last week as of Nov.30 from the prior week, data compiled by Mysteel consultancy showed. But it is still much higher than 63.12 percent in the same period last year.
“Steel mills have not started to reduce production, which slowed down the process of easing concerns over glut. We expect steel prices would stay low as demand remains at a seasonal downward trend,” CITIC Futures analysts said in a note in Mandarin. ($1 = 6.9278 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Muyu Xu and Dominique Patton; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
|
|
