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Fifteen integrated steelmakers in East China’s Shandong province are having to pay an extra Yuan 0.1/kWh ($0.015/kWh) including 16% VAT for the electricity they buy from China’s State Grid to power their operations starting January 1, as ordered by the Shandong Development and Reform Commission. But mills contacted by Mysteel were largely indifferent to the rise.
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China’s 137 long steelmakers recovered their rebar production by 1.1% or 35,100 tonnes week on week to 3.3 million tonnes over January 3-9 amid the declines in their stocks, according to Mysteel’s weekly production study among these mills.
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Shougang Jingtang United Iron & Steel Co, the Shougang Group’s major integrated steel complex in Tangshan city, North China’s Hebei province, anticipates a slight delay in completing construction on its second 5,500 cu m blast furnace, a company official has said. The unit will likely be fired within this year’s first half, a few months later than planned.
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China will continue eliminating surplus and outdated capacity for all types of raw coal this year as part of the country’s ongoing supply side reform, market sources predicted Wednesday.
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Newly updated statistics from the provincial government of North China’s Hebei, the centre of steelmaking in the country's north, show that as of last December 25, a total of 10.87 million tonnes/year of ironmaking capacity and 12.3 million t/y of steelmaking capacity had been permanently removed in 2018.
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China’s major integrated mills all enjoyed better margins making the three major carbon-steel products last month, according to Mysteel’s latest monthly profits study of 91 blast furnace mills during the period spanning November 26 through December 25.
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China’s rebar output among 139 independent domestic producers slipped to a three-month low at the beginning of 2019 after having declined another 2% or 65,000 tonnes on week to 3.26 million tonnes over December 27 2018 - January 2 among the pressure from the mounting stocks both at the works and traders, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly production survey.
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Traders’ stocks of five major steel products comprising rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate in 35 Chinese cities mounted 5.2% or 416,400 tonnes week as of January 2, as sales have been slowing down with the days getting colder in many parts of China, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly survey.
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CITIC Ltd, China’s top specialty steel producer, will consolidate and list all its core specialty steel asset via its Shenzhen-listed Daye Special Steel Co by transferring its 12 million tonnes/year Xingcheng Special Steel to Daye, according to the releases from both CITIC and Daye on January 2 and January 3 respectively.
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The total of reinforcing bars produced by the 137 Chinese integrated mills regularly monitored by Mysteel rose by a tiny 0.9% or 29,900 tonnes over the week of December 20-26 to reach 3.33 million tonnes, Mysteel’s latest weekly production survey indicates. The operational rate of the bar mills the steelmakers were running dipped by 0.7 percentage point on week to 71.5% while the rolling mill utilization rate gained by the same 0.7 percentage point on week to 73%.
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Yunnan Yuxi Yukun Iron & Steel Group Co in Yuxi city in Southwest China’s Yunnan province, plans to build a ‘greenfield’ steelworks with 5.15 million tonnes/year of crude steel capacity in Eshan Yi Autonomous County, also in Yuxi city, a senior company official has confirmed.
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Tangshan Guofeng Iron & Steel Co, an 8.8 million tonnes/year steel producer in Tangshan city’s Fengnan district in North China’s Hebei province, will shut down all facilities at its No.2 steelworks by the end of this month, a company official told Mysteel on Thursday. The shutdown will mean the company’s entire operations will be permanently closed.
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The growth in the profits among China’s iron and steelmaking and extrusion enterprises slowed further over January-November, down substantially 13.5 percentage points from the first ten months to 50.2% year on year, but it was still the second most profitable industry following oil and gas sector, according to the latest data released by the country’s National Bureau of Statistics on December 27.
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Japan’s Kobe Steel, the majority shareholder in Kobe Special Steel Wire Products (Pinghu), has announced a major expansion of the venture to lift throughput to 5,500 tonnes/month from spring 2020.
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China’s coking capacity is seen reaching 546 million tonnes/year by the end of this year, some 14 million t/y less than early this year, according to a post by Mysteel on December 24. The decline in total capacity notwithstanding, most of the capacity remains in the hands of independent coking plants across China and the small-size furnaces are still holding the largest proportion of coking capacity since China has been working to eliminate small-scale producers and independent coking capacity, Mysteel notes.
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Diversified mining company Anglo American Plc has lifted its Minas-Rio’s iron ore production guidance for 2019 to 18-20 million wet metric tonnes after receiving the regulatory approval relating to the Step 3 license area of the Minas-Rio operation in Brazil, the company announced on December 21.
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The most-traded May rebar contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange closed higher for the third day as of December 21, up Yuan 53/tonne ($7.7/t) from Thursday’s closing price amid the better market sentiment in the short term with the frequent curbing efforts of late by the Tangshan government in North China’s Hebei province on its local steel industry, market sources said.
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Diversified mining company Anglo American Plc has officially restarted the operations at its Minas-Rio iron ore operation in Brazil on December 21 as planned, after the mine has been shut for nearly nine months following the two slurry pipeline leaking accidents in March, the company announced on Friday.
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Ferrosilicon production among China’s 125 major smelters in November hit a five-year high of 492,400 tonnes, mainly with the resumption of some plants after the completion of maintenance, according to Mysteel’s latest monthly survey released on December 19.
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After the complete elimination of the induction furnaces from the Chinese market, the country should stay alert, preventing sub-quality steel products or “ditiaogang” in Chinese from returning to the domestic steel market to spoil the market order, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) reminds the market in a post on December 17.
