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For May, Japan’s exports of finished steel in all grades and forms rose by 10.9% on year to about 2.75 million tonnes, or the first month with an on-year gain after 12 consecutive months of drops, according to the preliminary data released by Japan’s Ministry of Finance on June 16.
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For April, Japan’s carbon steel exports dropped by 4.2% on year to about 1.72 million tonnes, according to the latest data released by the Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF) on May 31, which was the 12th month with an on-year decline, though an JISF official dismissed any concern, emphasizing that the country’s steel exports had been improving.
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Kobe Steel, Japan’s third largest integrated steelmaker, has raised its wire rod and bar list prices by Yen 5,000/tonne ($46/t) for July sales to both its domestic and overseas customers as part of the efforts to pass on some added input costs, a company official confirmed on June 1.
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China’s steel mills should conduct a more thorough study when exploring overseas steel investment opportunities either in greenfield projects or takeovers of existing steel assets, as risks have been arising in steel overcapacity in some countries or the growing difficulties in receiving funding, Ruan Qinghua, vice general manager of Capital Engineering & Research Incorporation Limited of Metallurgical Corporation of China (MCC) reminded the market.
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The new guideline governing steel capacity ‘swaps’ in China to take effect next week will help the steel industry to meet new challenges over 2021-2025, said Lv Guixin, an official with China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and called for its strict implementation.
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For April, Japan’s crude steel production including both carbon and special steel rose by 18.9% on year to about 7.82 million tonnes, or the second month scoring an on-year rise, according to the latest data from the Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF) on May 21.
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Anyang Iron & Steel Group (Angang), a 10 million tonnes/year steelmaker headquartered in Anyang city of Central China’s Henan province, formally blew-in a 1,860 cu m blast furnace at its greenfield steelworks in Zhoukou city, also in Henan, on May 18, the steelmaker announced via a Wechat post the same day.
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China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and Ministry of Information and Technology (MIIT) are inaugurating a nationwide probe to verify the progress made in terms of steel capacity elimination since 2016, a re-examination which market insiders suggest could be a precursor to the central government unveiling new measures aimed at limiting crude steel output this year.
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After nearly one and a half years of long wait, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information (MIIT), the governing body of the domestic steel industry, released the updated detailed guidelines regarding the old-for-new steel capacity swaps in China on May 6, and it will take effect on June 1 nationwide.
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Japan’s crude steel output during fiscal 2020 (April 2020-March 2021) including both carbon and special steel declined to a new low since fiscal 1969, down 15.9% on year to about 82.8 million tonnes, according to the latest data from the Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF) released on April 22.
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Japan’s finished steel exports of all grades and forms for the fiscal year 2020 (April 2020-March 2021) slumped to its 20-year low of about 30.8 million tonnes, or down 12.2% on year, Mysteel Global noted from the latest preliminary data released by Japan’s Ministry of Finance on April 19.
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Laoting Steel, a steelmaker under the umbrella of Hebei Iron & Steel Group (HBIS), this week commissioned the No.3 blast furnace at its new works in Laoting county in North China’s Tangshan city, meaning that all three of the steelworks’ 2,922 cu m blast furnaces are operation, a HBIS official confirmed on April 15.
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Japanese steelmaker and plant builder Kobe Steel has announced the first successful charge of Hot Direct Reduced Iron (HDRI) produced by a new DRI plant constructed in Algeria and supplied by Midrex Technologies, Inc. Kobe’s wholly owned subsidiary in the US, with its consortium partner Paul Wurth S.A based in Luxembourg.
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Japan’s crude steel demand including both carbon and special steel for both domestic sales and exports will stay on the recovery path over April-June, though on quarter, it may decline by 1.8% to about 23.24 million tonnes, according to the latest forecast released by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) on April 13.
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Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest integrated mill, plans to develop technologies for a large-scale electric-arc furnace mill (EAF) and will start installation around 2030 as a part of the company’s ‘Carbon Neutral Vision 2050’ project, it announced on March 30. The EAF will replace one of its existing blast furnaces, but further details are not decided, it said.
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The recent surge in global freight rates for dry bulk vessels has caught the ferrous materials market off guard, making it challenging for the ferrous commodities including iron ore, coking coal, steel, and manganese ore to move globally, Chinese market sources complain. The Baltic Dry Index, the dry bulk market’s key indicator, touched a 1.5-year high of 2,319 points on March 22, jumping 610 points on month.
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China’s steel sector has been targeting to reach its carbon emission peak by 2025, or five years ahead of the country’s target for the whole economy, and by 2030, it aims to cut carbon emission further by 30% from 2025, the domestic steel market has been circulating an action plan proposed by the industrial participants.
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Japan’s crude steel production in February including both carbon and special steel decreased by 5.6% on year to about 7.47 million tonnes, or recording the 12nd consecutive month with an on-year decline, showed the latest data from the Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF) on March 22.
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Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest integrated mill targets to trim its domestic steelmaking capacity by 20% or 10 million tonnes/year over FY21-25 or until March 2026 to around 40 million t/y in answer to anticipated lower demand as well as pressure from environmental protection, the company shared on March 5.
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Inner Mongolia in North China, now the country’s second-largest coal mining region after Shanxi in North China too and with the most competitive power charges, mulls blocking any new industrial projects including steel, coke, ferroalloys, non-ultra-high electrode graphite and aluminium starting 2021, aiming to rein in on the region’s power consumption mainly by such industrial plants, according to a draft by its Development and Reform Committee.
