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Prices of the steelmaking raw materials including iron ore, coke and steel scrap have been performing strongly, soaring their respective multi-year highs in China recently, paying little attention to the stalling domestic steel prices, and this may continue in the foreseeable future too, according to Chinese market sources.
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Chinese steel producers hiked their prices of steel products for export for the third week last week, even though steel prices at home had been softening, particularly those of long steel, Mysteel Global noted.
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At a closed-door conference held in Beijing on November 29, Chinese government bodies including the Ministry of Ecology and Environment finally approved new classification standards for the country’s steel scrap sector. Though the details are yet to be released, the new standards classify categories of steel scrap and are comparable to those in use internationally, paving the way for China to re-open its ports to approved types of foreign steel scrap, Mysteel Global notes.
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The growth in on-year profits of sizable Chinese industrial enterprises over January-October reached 0.7%, according to the latest data released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on November 27.
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Total inventories of all grades of stainless steel at commercial warehouses in Wuxi and Foshan, China’s two core stainless trading hubs, reversed down by 5.6% on week over November 20-26 after climbing for the prior two weeks, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly survey. Higher consumption among end-users and a reduction in arrivals from producers were behind the dip.
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The trajectories of Chinese prices of hot-rolled coil (HRC) and rebar have become entangled, once again. Hot coil prices had edged higher than rebars starting from this year’s second half but from this month, rebars have gained the upper hand again. As of November 26, just Yuan 2/tonne ($0.3/t) separated them, and how they will move in coming weeks is still being debated, Mysteel Global noted.
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Chinese steel mills raised their steel export offers last week and again this week, even though domestic steel prices have started showing signs of weakening and when global demand is not so strong, Mysteel Global has learned.
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Tangshan Q235 150mm square billet price, weathervane of China’s steel market development, reversed down after continuous increase since November 16. It decreased by Yuan 30/tonne ($9.1/t) on day to Yuan 3,590/t EXW and including the 13% VAT as of November 23. Downstream buying retreated with bleak winter coldness blanketing the majority of China.
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Total inventories of all grades of stainless steel at commercial warehouses in Wuxi and Foshan, China’s two core stainless trading hubs, continued to climb over November 13-19, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly survey. Demand from downstream users remained lacklustre as prices had been softening, the survey found.
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Chinese steel prices continued to refresh respective highs on November 19 although downstream buyers were starting to worry about the “dangerously high” prices and displayed some resistance in buying, Mysteel Global understands from market sources.
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China’s steel mills have hiked their export offering prices substantially by $5-19/tonne on week more to match the gains in the domestic prices than to eagerly look for buyers from overseas, though demand from overseas have appeared robust, Mysteel Global understands from industry sources.
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China’s independent electric-arc-furnace (EAF) steel mills saw their capacity utilization recover slightly last week, as the profit margins these EAF steelmakers are enjoying on their output have improved thanks to the strengthening of finished steel prices currently, market watchers commented on Wednesday.
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Total inventories of all grades of stainless steel at commercial warehouses in Wuxi and Foshan, China’s two core stainless trading hubs, reversed up over November 6-12 after sliding for the prior two weeks, mainly due to stepped-up arrivals at traders’ warehouses and the depressed demand among stainless users, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly survey.
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Steel scrap prices across China are likely to keep strengthening in the remaining few weeks of 2020, predicted Li Shubin, vice chairman of the China Association of Metalscrap Utilization (CAMU) at the 2020 National Steel Scrap Conference in Haikou in South China’s Hainan province on November 12.
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Despite higher steel output, China’s steel scrap consumption decreased by 1% or 1.58 million tonnes on year to 155.2 million tonnes in the first nine months of 2020, Li Shubin, vice chairman of the China Association of Metalscrap Utilization (CAMU), shared on November 12 at the 2020 National Steel Scrap Conference in Haikou, South China’s Hainan province.
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The profit margins of China’s blast-furnace steel mills saw some improvement in October, mainly thanks to the recovery in steel prices with the firmer demand from end-users, Mysteel’s latest monthly report shows. The mills’ production costs did increase further last month, however.
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Tangshan Q235 150mm square billet price, the bellwether of China’s steel market development, jumped Yuan 50/tonne ($7.6/t) over the weekend to reach a 15-month high of Yuan 3,560/t EXW and including the 13% VAT as of November 8. Market concern over further billet supply tightness was triggered by the renewed curbing measures on billet-supplying mills in this top steel producing city in China.
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China’s production of crude stainless steel hovered at a relatively high level in October, mainly thanks to the improved sales among domestic stainless producers and the rises in stainless prices, according to Mysteel’s latest monthly survey among 32 Chinese stainless mills.
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Total inventories of all grades of stainless steel at commercial warehouses in Wuxi and Foshan, China’s two core stainless trading hubs, remained largely stable over October 30-November 5, as consumption of 300-series stainless products among users slowed as domestic market sentiment turned negative, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly survey.
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China’s national price of HRB400 20mm dia rebar hit Yuan 3,916/tonne ($589.8/t) on November 4, reaching the highest so far this year after climbing for six consecutive working days on Wednesday by another Yuan 17/t on day. Sentiments of Chinese steel participants improved greatly due to sustained strong trading lately, Mysteel Global noted.
