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China’s steel export prices weakened over September 14-18, their first decline since early May, as steel suppliers – especially traders – lowered their offers when domestic demand turned slack, Mysteel’s latest weekly survey has found. Export trading increased after the gap in prices between Chinese products and those of rivals closed, respondents said.
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Scrap prices generally weakened throughout Asia over the week of September 11-18, perhaps with the exception of Taiwan where landed scrap prices showed signs of strengthening, reflecting the keenness of Taiwan’s local buyers for stocking, according to Mysteel’s latest survey.
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The price of seaborne premium low-volatile hard coking coal destined for China hit a five-month high of $138/t CFR North China as of September 18, or up sharply by $12/tonne on week, according to Mysteel’s assessment. Market sources cited growing demand in China as the main reason for the price spike.
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The total volume of iron ore dispatched to global destinations from the 19 ports and 16 mining companies in Australia and Brazil reversed down over September 14-20 after one-week gain, falling 8.8% or 2.3 million tonnes on week to 24 million tonnes, with both countries posting declines, according to Mysteel’s weekly tracking.
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The Chinese spot price of 60% grade ferromolybdenum (FeMo) hovered at Yuan 95,000-96,000/tonne ($14,053-14,201/t) over September 14-18, remaining largely stable from the prior week at a 2.5-month high. Buying of FeMo was not active last week, yet procurement of molybdenum oxide increased, especially after the appreciation of the Yuan against the US dollar, according to Mysteel’s weekly survey.
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Prices for domestically produced iron ore concentrates at major markets in China were mixed over the week of September 14-18. Last week, falling imported ore prices prompted some domestic miners in East China to shave their prices too. On the other hand, tight supply in North and Northeast China led prices here to firm, according to sources.
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Total production of iron ore concentrates at the 186 Chinese mining companies under Mysteel’s bi-weekly survey reversed down to reach 538,100 tonnes/day as of September 17 after rising for the previous four weeks. Survey respondents on Friday said some miners in Northeast and Northwest China contributed most to the output decline.
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China’s domestic steel scrap market softened over the week of September 11-18, with Mysteel’s steel scrap price index decreasing by Yuan 22.2/tonne ($3.3/t) on week to Yuan 2,602.7/t on delivery and including the 13% VAT as of September 18. Behind the dip were the fast pace of scrap deliveries to mills and the downward spiral in domestic finished steel prices, sources said.
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Over the September 14-18 week, Chinese steel mills were cautious about taking too much imported iron ore from ports, according to market sources. Prices of finished steel were causing concern and those of iron ore were fluctuating ahead of the long National Day holiday beginning next week, they explained.
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The price of iron ore, the core steelmaking raw material in China softened further while the coke price stayed unchanged over September 14-18 in the physical market on the dampened market sentiment when the domestic steel consumption had not been as robust as expected and domestic steel prices had been under pressure.
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Prices ofimported coalfirmedover September 14-18.
Coking coal imports
SeabornePCIcoal offering price to China, unit: $/tonne
PCIcoalimports:
SeabornePCIcoal offering price to China, unit:$/tonne
Seaborne thermalcoal offering price to China:
Edited by Sean Xie, xiepy@mysteel.com
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The prices of both rebar and hot-rolled coil (HRC) in China’s physical market declined further over September 14-18, as the domestic steel production remained stable while the demand recovery was below the expectation, Mysteel Global noted.
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Total coke output among the 230 Chinese independent coking plants under Mysteel’s weekly survey rose moderately by another 2,500 tonnes/day on week to average 696,100 t/d as of September 17, a new high since Mysteel started the survey in late 2017. The higher output was in response to firm coke sales, according to sources.
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The blast furnace capacity utilization among the 247 Chinese steel mills persisted at the plateau of 94.25% by September 17, despite having inched down for the fifth week over September 11-17, as most Chinese steel mills showed little inclination to lower their output substantially, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly survey.
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Imported iron ore inventories at China’s 45 major ports remained largely stable at 114.9 million tonnes as of September 17, up marginally by 363,600 tonnes or 0.3% on week, as the higher daily discharge volume offset the growing unloading volume with the ease in congestion, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly survey.
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Vale, the world’s largest iron ore producer, still expects to gradually achieve its minimum 400 million tonnes/year iron ore capacity in the future from actual operating capacity of 318 million t/y, though no timeline has been given, according to the company’s 20th Analyst & Investor Tour report posted on its website on September 16.
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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.
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Stocks of imported iron ore sintering fines held by the 64 Chinese steelmakers under Mysteel’s weekly survey ended their four-week decline over September 10-16 to climb to 17.7 million tonnes, according to Mysteel’s latest data released on Thursday. Most steelmakers have been accumulating inventory for smooth production over the upcoming National Day holidays, industry watchers explained.
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The 2 million tonnes/year Zhongjiu iron ore mining and processing project under Magang (Group) Holding (Magang), now a subsidiary of China Baowu Steel Group (Baowu), has started the construction, a Magang official confirmed on September 16.
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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.
