China's H1 steel output up 6%, June daily a new high
Source: Mysteel
Jul 16, 2018 15:57
For the first half of 2018, China’s crude steel output grew 6% on year to 451 million tonnes, and the daily steel production hit a new high at 2.67 million tonnes/year for June, according to the latest data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on July 16.
China’s steel output has been growing at a higher rate by June in comparison with the 5.4% year-on-year growth for January-May, partly as the daily output for June refreshed the record set in May when the country’s daily steel output averaged 2.62 million t/d then.
“It is nothing to be alarmed about, as it seems that there are no longer any invisible steel supplies in China, and China’s domestic steel prices have been holding well despite that the country’s daily steel output has been refreshing itself with new highs since April,” a Shanghai-based steel analyst commented.
For June, China produced 80.2 million tonnes of crude steel, up 7.5% on year but 1% lower than May, according to the NBS data, while China’s national average HRB400 20mm dia rebar price gained by Yuan 35/tonne ($5.2/t) on month to Yuan 4,142/t including the 16% VAT as of June 29, according to Mysteel’s market survey.
As for finished steel output, China produced 531 million tonnes for H1, up 6% on year too, and the tonnage for June alone was 95.5 million tonnes, or up 7.2% on year, according to the latest NBS statistics.
China’s demand usually sees weakening since June, imposing pressure on domestic steel prices, but this year China’s domestic steel prices have been holding well so far, as supplies have been constrained with Beijing’s consistent curbing efforts out of environmental protection concerns, and the Chinese steel mills, though with high margins, have not been able to produce as much as they wish.
Shortly after the one-month onsite inspections at the 10 Chinese provinces including the key steel production bases such as Hebei and Jiangsu that ended in early July, Tangshan in Hebei is going through a short-term emergency restriction on steel mills and it is also planning for a longer one that may run through July 20-August 31, as reported.
Shortly after the one-month onsite inspections at the 10 Chinese provinces including the key steel production bases such as Hebei and Jiangsu that ended in early July, Tangshan in Hebei is going through a short-term emergency restriction on steel mills and it is also planning for a longer one that may run through July 20-August 31, as reported.
Despite the seemingly high steel output nationwide, capacity utilization rates among China’s blast-furnace and electric-arc-furnaces steel mills have been at reasonable levels nationwide as of July 13, with that among the 247 BF mills up by 0.2 percentage point on month to 81.5%, and that among the 53 independent EAF producers up 6.6 percentage points on month but still low at 65.2%, according to Mysteel surveys.
Written by Thea Feng, fengyx@mysteel.com
Edited by Hongmei Li, li.hongmei@mysteel.com
Edited by Hongmei Li, li.hongmei@mysteel.com
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