Rebar Futures Main-Continuous 2010-2026: Price Range and Volatility Panorama
Bottom line: since 2010 the rebar main-continuous contract has printed an all-time high of CNY 6,208/tonne (2021-05-11) and a low of CNY 1,618/tonne (2015-12-01) — a range of more than 284%. It remains one of the most actively traded commodity futures in China.
| Year | Year-start close | Year-end close | Annual change | Intra-year max drawdown |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | 4,512 | 4,791 | +6.2% | -19.8% |
| 2011 | 4,812 | 4,201 | -12.7% | -24.4% |
| 2012 | 4,210 | 3,916 | -7.0% | -26.5% |
| 2013 | 3,988 | 3,570 | -10.5% | -19.1% |
| 2014 | 3,570 | 2,594 | -27.3% | -32.1% |
| 2015 | 2,560 | 1,784 | -30.3% | -37.9% |
| 2016 | 1,777 | 2,867 | +61.3% | -30.3% |
| 2017 | 2,851 | 3,794 | +33.1% | -22.4% |
| 2018 | 3,874 | 3,404 | -12.1% | -25.9% |
| 2019 | 3,382 | 3,569 | +5.5% | -20.5% |
| 2020 | 3,547 | 4,388 | +23.7% | -12.4% |
| 2021 | 4,383 | 4,315 | -1.6% | -33.5% |
| 2022 | 4,395 | 4,105 | -6.6% | -34.2% |
| 2023 | 4,063 | 4,002 | -1.5% | -21.5% |
| 2024 | 4,047 | 3,309 | -18.2% | -24.8% |
| 2025 | 3,306 | 3,122 | -5.6% | -13.4% |
| 2026 | 3,104 | 3,046 | -1.9% | -9.4% |
Note: 2026 covers the year to date through 2026-11-09. "Main-continuous" is the most-active contract spliced over time: the series contains contract rolls and the cross-roll price gap is not back-adjusted, so roll-cost research needs per-contract data.
Why rebar matters
(1) Low margin requirements and deep liquidity make it the commodity future retail investors meet first. (2) Demand tracks property construction and infrastructure cycles closely — rebar is a thermometer for physical steel demand in China. (3) Its inter-month and spot-futures spreads (contango versus backwardation) are the cleanest classroom for learning futures pricing; this site plans a dedicated term-structure page later.
Methodology and data boundaries
East Money daily bars for the rebar main-continuous code (fut_rbm), 2010-01-01 through 2026-11-09 (4,103 rows), recomputed from the downloadable CSV. Annual change compares year-end closes; intra-year drawdowns use daily closes of the spliced series. Honest limits: the splice includes roll effects without back-adjustment, so long-horizon "total return" computed from this series overstates what a rolled position would have earned (or lost) across rolls; the 2010-01-01 first bar predates the equity series' start.
Frequently asked questions
How big is one rebar futures contract?
10 tonnes per lot. Margin ratios and current pricing are set by the exchange and futures brokers — check their latest notices; this page does not update them in real time.
Main-continuous versus a single contract: what's the difference?
The main-continuous splice is convenient for seeing the trend but embeds contract rolls; backtesting roll-and-carry returns requires per-contract data with explicit roll rules.
Disclaimer: this article is data research built on publicly available finance data — it is not investment advice, not a recommendation, and not an offer to buy or sell any security or futures contract. All figures are recomputable from the CSV files linked on this site.