-
Stainless steel inventories at commercial warehouses in Wuxi and Foshan, China’s two core stainless trading hubs, rose for the second consecutive week over September 11-17, though at a faster pace of 2.2% against the 0.6% rise over the prior week, according to Mysteel’s weekly survey. The persistent weakness of demand from end-users and the pickup in arrivals at traders’ warehouses were mainly responsible.
-
China’s shipbuilders received new vessel orders totalling about 15 million dead weight tons (dwt) over January-August, or down 4.5% on year, according to the latest data from the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry (CANSI), there was a slight improvement from the 4.8% on-year drop for the first seven months, but the concern persisted on the insufficiency of the backlog.
-
China’s national average HRB400 20mm dia rebar price slipped for the third day as of September 17, down another Yuan 10/tonne ($1.5/t) on day to Yuan 3,796/t including the 13% VAT, and the slight recovery in trading and depletion of inventories seemed to have failed to ease the current pessimism, Mysteel Global understands.
-
Steel stocks at Chinese traders’ warehouses declined further and faster over September 11-17, thanks to the firm end-user demand over the period, even though market sentiment stayed gloomy, Mysteel Global noted.
-
The spot price of the high-carbon ferrochrome (FeCr) in North China’s Inner Mongolia stayed unchanged at Yuan 5,800/tonne ($853/t) including 13% VAT as of September 16 after three weeks of rises, as both the traders and stainless plants slowed down their paces of buying from the prior weeks, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly report.
-
Domestic futures prices of ferrous materials and metals including iron ore, rebar and hot-rolled coil in China declined significantly on September 16, with the most traded rebar futures contract down 1.8% on day and iron ore futures plunging by 5.1% on day. Market watchers suggested that current actual demand for ferrous commodities was not as robust as the market had long expected, Mysteel Global noted.
-
China’s steel export prices continued to rise over the past week and transaction volume grew, mainly due to the steadily narrowing price gap with the Chinese mill competitors in the international steel market, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly survey.
-
Stainless steel inventories at commercial warehouses in Wuxi and Foshan, China’s two core stainless trading hubs, reversed up again over September 4-10 after the prior week’s one-off contraction, mainly due to the increased arrivals at traders’ warehouses and slowing demand from end-users, Mysteel Global notes.
-
Steel futures prices on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) softened over the week of September 7-11 as market sentiment turned weaker. Steel consumption has failed to improve to the extent that the market had expected over the busy season over September-October, fuelling trepidation about future trends, Mysteel Global understands from industry sources.
-
Production and sales of automobiles in China both witnessed on-year rises for the fifth successive month in August, mainly thanks to the stabilizing economy and a series of policies aimed at stimulating purchasing, according to the latest release from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) on September 10. Market sentiment also largely improved last month, the association noted.
-
The global steel market has shown signs of consistent recoveries in both demand and supply, with many major steelmakers in Vietnam, Japan, India and Europe gradually lifting their output and prices, and China’s steel exports offering prices, in tandem with the uptrend, rose too.
-
The spot price of high-carbon ferrochrome (FeCr) in North China’s Inner Mongolia strengthened for the third straight week, though the latest on-week was only Yuan 25/tonne ($3.7/t) to Yuan 5,800/t including 13% VAT as of September 8, according to Mysteel’s assessment, which was underpinned by the better demand from the country’s stainless mills, according to market sources.
-
Chinese steel prices reversed down on September 4 as steel demand remained low. It had improved slower than the Chinese steel market insiders expected for the busy season during September-October.
-
Stainless steel inventories at commercial warehouses in Wuxi and Foshan, China’s two core stainless trading hubs had been fluctuating, down again over August 28-September 3 after a short one-week growth, and the decline was tiny at 0.22% on week to 449,544 tonnes, mainly due to lower delivery from the producers to the traders in Wuxi, East China’s Jiangsu province, Mysteel’s latest survey showed.
-
The spot price of high-carbon ferrochrome (FeCr) in North China’s Inner Mongolia inched up for the second week by another Yuan 25/tonne ($3.6/t) on week to Yuan 5,800/tonne including 13% VAT as of September 2, according to Mysteel’s assessment, which was mainly boosted by the better demand from the Chinese stainless plants, market sources shared.
-
China’s steel mills raised their steel export offering prices by another $5-10/tonne last week, or at least two months in a row to reflect the appreciation of Yuan against the U.S. dollar, though their primary target of sales has stayed firmly at the domestic market, Mysteel Global understood from the market sources.
-
Daily crude steel production among China’s 318 steel mills including integrated and electric-arc-furnace (EAF) producers increased further over August 21-31 by another 10,400 tonnes/day or 0.35% from August 11-20 to nearly 3 million t/d, which was also 7.5% higher on year, again refreshing the all-time high since Mysteel launched the survey in January 2018.
-
China’s national price of HRB400 20mm dia rebar increased substantially by Yuan 32/tonne ($4.7/t) on day to Yuan 3,858/t including the 13% VAT on Monday. Steel trading thrived and Chinese market insiders believed that the robust demand season might really have arrived as they had expected.
-
Stainless steel inventories at commercial warehouses in Wuxi and Foshan, China’s two stainless trading hubs, rebounded over August 21-27 after a two-week decline, mainly thanks to the pickup in deliveries of stainless products to traders’ warehouses, according to Mysteel’s latest survey.
-
Over August 21-27, finished steel inventories held by traders across China continued rising, as no encouraging signs were seen in demand though market expectations for sales in September stayed optimistic, Mysteel Global noted.
