Rebar Declines on Speculation China Won’t Ease Property Curbs
Steel reinforcement-bar futures declined the most in two months after a report that property prices gained in 35 Chinese cities fueled concern that the government won’t relax curbs on the sector.
The contract for May delivery fell 2.7 percent, the biggest decline since Sept. 20, to close at 3,544 yuan ($568) a metric ton on the Shanghai Futures Exchange.
New home prices rose in October in more cities than the previous month, indicating the government may refrain from relaxing curbs on the property market. Prices climbed in 35 of the 70 cities the government tracks, compared with 31 in September, according to data from the statistics bureau yesterday. Prices fell in 17 cities.
“The property sector will continue to face pressure from macro controls,” Wanda Futures Co. said in a report today. Rebar steel is mostly used in construction.
The global steel industry may face a “double dip” situation as reorganization “hasn’t taken place fully,” Dae- Woo Lee, senior economist at Posco Research Institute, said in Hong Kong today. The industry’s continued expansion reduced capacity utilization, he said.
Iron ore with 62 percent content delivered to China’s Tianjin port was unchanged at $122.80 a dry ton on Nov. 16, data compiled by the Steel Index Ltd. show. Rebar for immediate delivery fell 0.3 percent to 3,708 yuan a ton today, according to Beijing Antaike Information Development Co.
To contact Bloomberg News staff for this story: Feiwen Rong in Beijing at frong2@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net
Rate this Page
Bloomberg moderates all comments. Comments that are abusive or off-topic will not be posted to the site. Excessively long comments may be moderated as well. Bloomberg cannot facilitate requests to remove comments or explain individual moderation decisions.