alfexe/Adobe Stock
In recent weeks, the Chinese yuan (CNY) has weakened against the U.S. dollar (USD). A weaker yuan makes imports cheaper, all other things holding equal.
As we can see in this chart, during the past couple of weeks the yuan weakened back to roughly December levels.
Will this currency change result in surging steel imports due to the increased attractiveness of Chinese steel prices?
Source: MetalMiner analysis of Yahoo.com data
The Price Spread Still Remains Fairly High, Apples to Apples
The chart below shows the spread between U.S. and Chinese CRC prices since January 2018.
Source: MetalMiner data from MetalMiner IndX(™)
Around the time the U.S. tariffs took effect, U.S. prices increased, while Chinese prices started to move lower.
Fast forward to mid-May 2019 and the differential still remains higher than during the pre-tariff period. The differential is down to just over $200/st — from around $400/st, the 2018 peak — as shown by the spread line in purple, which measures the straight arithmetic difference between the two prices.
Why should we look at Chinese prices? It’s certainly not because China serves a major trading partner for steel. Looking at the statistics, in fact, only around 1% of China’s steel exports come to the U.S.
The reason to study Chinese steel prices owes to the fact that China drives global production, with over 50% of global steel produced in China. In pure price trend analysis, we know it remains a key to future pricing for the U.S., as it will be for all country-level analyses.
As such, examining the Chinese CRC price offers value, regardless of whether or not an organization plans to actually import from China.
A Tactical Examination of the CRC Price Differential
In terms of a more hands-on assessment for buyers looking at importing steel from China, a second look at the spread below takes into account the 25% tariff and $90 per ton in estimated import charges (e.g., freight, trader margin, etc.).
Source: MetalMiner data from MetalMiner IndX(™)
The chart above depicts $90 in importing costs added to the Chinese CRC price only, plus the 25% tariff rate, with the extra 25% added on top only after March 23, 2018.
Adding the import tariff decreases the spread, as shown by the purple line. Subsequently, the tariff triggered a drop in the spread.
At the arrows, we see the differential shift after March 23, 2018, when Chinese prices effectively rose to around $900/st. At that point, the spread dropped significantly, as expected, as shown by the sudden drop in the purple line.
While a spread in China’s favor still remained throughout 2018, into 2019 one could say tariffs leveled the relative price difference. Additionally, U.S. steel prices dropped in line with Chinese prices (plus the tariff and import costs).
With the spread essentially flat, tariffs look to essentially “level the playing field,” as prescribed by their use.
What Does This Mean for Industrial Buyers?
With the Chinese currency weakening once more against the U.S. dollar, MetalMiner expects Chinese imports will start to look increasingly attractive to would-be U.S.-based importers.
However, once we account for the tariffs and import costs, the spread between U.S. and Chinese prices looks effectively negligible.
The fact that U.S. prices for CRC dropped very recently also offset some of the would-be increase in the spread following the weakening of the yuan against the dollar.
Want to a see Cold Rolled price forecast? Get two monthly reports for free!
Given that Chinese imports only account for a small percentage of U.S. steel imports at this time, and given the flattening of the spread, the Chinese yuan must depreciate more significantly or U.S. prices must begin to rise once more before we can expect to see a major uptick in imports of Chinese CRC steel.
