-
Beijing has shared its advice on the further optimization in China’s steel industrial location and steel products structure by region in a guideline released by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) recently, a MIIT official confirmed on November 20.
-
Chinese production of rebars recovered slightly last week as major steelmakers in Jiangsu province including Jiangsu Shagang Group and Yonggang Group gradually resumed full production after slowing their operations while Shanghai hosted China’s first International Imports Expo (CIIE).
-
China’s graphite electrode market remains buoyant, supported by strong demand and rising prices of vital inputs such as needle coke, market sources said this week. After climbing for nine straight weeks from the end of August, Mysteel’s benchmark price for 600mm ultra-high-power (UHP) grade graphite electrode reached an all-time high of Yuan 117,000/tonne ($16,800/t) including the 16% VAT on October 31 and as of Wednesday November 13, continued to hold steady.
-
Domestic rebar production in China has come off its peak as reduced procurement from buyers has led inventories at mills to gradually swell, Mysteel’s latest weekly production survey released on November 10 has found.
-
Steel giant Jiangsu Shagang Group has decided to hold its HRB400 16-25mm dia rebar ex-works price stable at Yuan 4,780/tonne ($686.8/t) including the 16% VAT for sales between November 11-20, according to the latest price adjustment policy tabled by China’s largest privately-owned steel producer on November 11.
-
In a move aimed at creating ‘greener’ steel, China’s third largest steelmaking province, Shandong, aims to install more electric arc furnace capacity and more than double the EAF sector’s contribution to the province’s total steelmaking capacity to 20% by 2025.
-
The most-traded rebar contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, that for January delivery, ended the afternoon session on November 9 at Yuan 3,933/tonne ($570/t), lower by Yuan 7/t from Thursday afternoon’s settlement price.
-
East China’s Shandong province has unveiled an ambitious seven-year rationalization scheme for its steel industry which it hopes will see the creation of two steel production hubs – one inland, one coastal – and increase the percentage of steel capacity in the coastal hub to 70% by 2025.
-
Domestic blast-furnace steelmakers again enjoyed decent profits from making rebar in October, as demand for the longs from civil construction projects and infrastructure programs reached a peak last month, according to Mysteel’s latest monthly production study released on November 7.
-
Production of ferrosilicon among China’s 125 major smelters continued to increase in October, thanks mainly to smelters’ eagerness to boost the stock levels in their yards while demand from downstream buyers remains steady, the results of Mysteel’s latest monthly survey show.
-
The city government of Tangshan in North China’s Hebei has finalized the degree to which steelmakers in the city are to reduce production during the winter restrictions period, market respondents confirmed Tuesday. Given the city’s prominence as the supplier of the most steel in the world’s largest steel producing country, Tangshan’s advisory should be a crucial indicator of how China’s steel sector will manage this season’s production cuts. Unfortunately, it is not.
-
Chinese rebar production remained active during the October 25-31 week but output growth slowed, according to Mysteel’s latest production survey released on November 2. Demand for bars, especially from building contractors, has gradually softened as temperatures have declined markedly in the northern half of the country.
-
China’s Jiangsu Shagang Group, located in Zhangjiagang northwest of Shanghai, has decided to deepen its cuts to upstream production during this week’s China International Import Expo (CIIE) to help improve air quality over the city for the event, market sources have confirmed.
-
Chinese output of silico-manganese continued to increase in October, mainly thanks to the buoyant SiMn prices and steady demand from steel mills.
-
The city government of Wu’an, a major steel production base in North China’s Hebei province, has officially ordered 14 steel mills under its authority to limit part of their production this winter to reduce air pollution during the period, a Wu’an industry source confirmed on November 2.
-
Hongxing Iron and Steel Co, a steelmaker with 5 million tonnes/year crude steel capacity located in North China’s Hebei province, intends to start installing new facilities at its existing works from early next year, an official from Hebei’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) confirmed on November 1.
-
Shisteel Co (Shisteel), a subsidiary of China’s huge Hebei Iron & Steel Group (HBIS), plans to install two new electric-arc furnaces at its works in Shijiazhuang in North China’s Hebei province, according to an October 30 announcement released by Hebei’s provincial Industry and Information Technology Department. But to gain official approval for its plans, the company is ‘swapping’ the new capacity for upstream facilities it will close.
-
The growth in Chinese steelmakers’ profits decelerated in the third quarter of 2018 even though that for the first nine months surpassed the average level of the country’s industrial sector, mainly as steelmaking raw material prices including iron ore, coke, scrap and ferroalloys caught up in speed, market sources agreed.
-
Rebar output in China gained a further 1.9% or 65,800 tonnes on week during October 18-24 to reach 3.49 million tonnes, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly production study of 139 construction steel producers across the country. The week also saw both the operational rate for rebar rolling mills and their utilization rate rise by 0.7 percentage point and 1.5 percentage points respectively to 76.1% and 76.4%, the new data shows.
-
Shagang Group (Shagang), China’s largest electric-arc-furnace (EAF) steelmaker, has raised its steel scrap procurement prices by another Yuan 80/tonne ($11.5/t) effective from October 27 deliveries and making for the mill’s second price rise in 12 short days. Market observers suggest the mill is short of scrap stocks.
