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The Customs Tariff Commissions of China's State Council announced on May 22 that it will cut import tariffs on certain vehicles and automotive parts from July 1, an announcement which market sources interpreted as Beijing's attempt to push forward with opening the country's automotive market to foreign makers - to head-off complaints from Washington - and to help advance China's automobile industry.
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The US Department of Commerce's final affirmative ruling announced last week on corrosion-resistant steel (CORE) and certain cold-rolled flat products imported from Vietnam - which slaps hefty penalties on these for their incorporation of hot rolled and cold rolled coil substrate originating in China - is being brushed aside by Chinese industry insiders.
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China's overseas investment increased for a sixth successive month in April to $10.08 billion, according to the latest statistics released by China's Ministry of Commerce on May 17. The ministry gave no on-year comparison but said the April result took the total for the first four months of this year to $35.6 billion, up by 34.9% on year.
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China's property market is expected to maintain its steady pace in prices, destocking and fixed asset investment for 2018, Liu Aihua, spokesperson of China's National Bureau of Statistics reassured the reporters at a recent press conference on China's economic performance for April.
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China's fixed asset investment (excluding rural households) registered Yuan 15.4 trillion ($2.4 trillion) for the first four months of this year, with the growth rate down another 0.5 percentage point to 7% compared to that for January-March, according to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on May 15.
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China's trade with the 71 countries that have joined its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) reached $1.44 trillion last year, representing a rise of 13.4% on year and bringing an end to two successive years of continuous negative growth, according to a report by the State Information Center, a central government think tank, on May 6.
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China's finished steel exports surged by another 825,000 tonnes or 14.6% month on month to 6.48 million tonnes in April, according to the latest statistics released by China's General Administration of Customs on May 8.
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China economy is giving little sign that it is slowing down as the official manufacturing PMI stood at 51.4 in April vs a 51.3 forecast and a 51.5 in March. A composite index covering manufacturing and services rose to 54.1 in April vs 54 in March.
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The US economy added 164,000 jobs in April, vs market expectations of 193,000 and 135,000 in March. Although the top line was below forecast, the number is solid and the unemployment rate dropped to 3.9% vs 4.1% in March, the lowest data since the year 2000.
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Supplies of ferrous scrap globally will likely reach 1 billion tonnes in 2030 and 1.3 billion in 2050, with availability of this major steelmaking raw material climbing by 500 million tonnes over the coming 30 years, according to an estimate prepared by the World Steel Association (WSA) on May 3.
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The most traded rebar contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, that for October, closed at Yuan 3,664/tonne ($582/t) on May 4, tumbling another Yuan 31/t from the settlement price the day before and prompting market watchers to express concerns about the future direction of Chinese rebar demand.
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China's steel industry should avoid the new capacity from being constructed and speed up its de-stocking paces, fending off the potential risks on steel prices from high steel output and inventories for the rest of 2018, Liu Zhenjiang, Secretary General of the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA), reiterated in a recent speech.
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Sales of heavy trucks in China in the 14 tonnes to 100 tonnes class surged 16% year on year to 121,000 units in April, according to data released by Beijing-headquartered vehicle data provider Commercial Vehicle World on May 2.
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Chinese steel prices will likely show strong continuous upticks this month as sentiment among market players has improved, thanks largely to tighter steel supply conditions triggered by ongoing output curbs among producers in Xuzhou city in East China's Jiangsu province. But market sources cautioned that potential risks remain, chief among these being the rapidly rising steel prices.
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The Purchasing Manager's Index for the steel industry in North China's Hebei province reversed up 0.9 basis point on month to 50.2 for April, according to a May 1 release from the Hebei Metallurgical Industry Association. Last month's result for China's core steelmaking province marked the first time this year its PMI had crossed the crucial 50 threshold connoting growth.
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China's Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) for the steel industry added 1.1 basis points on month to 51.7 in April, according to index compiler CFLP Steel Logistics Professional Committee (CSLPC) on April 30. The result underscored the expansion the country's steel sector witnessed last month, Mysteel notes.
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The proposed closer scrutiny by China's Ministry of Finance (MOF) over Public-Private Partnership (PPP) projects may risk slackening steel demand in some regions of the country, market sources shared on April 28.
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Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal Corp, Japan's biggest steelmaker, reaped the rewards of a recovering domestic steel market during its financial year 2017 to March 31, posting a 49% year-on-year jump on its net profit to Yen 195.1 billion ($1.8 billion), according to its annual report released on April 26.
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China's steel industry should avoid any expansions to capacity this year and instead, focus on better quality rather than higher quantity, according to Shen Wenrong, chairman of Shagang Group (Shagang), China's largest EAF mill and based Zhangjiagang, East China's Jiangsu province.
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Chinese domestic prices of rebar should continue tracking upward over the short term as market players envisage the robust demand for the construction steel product continuing to linger, market sources shared on April 24. But they warned that prices were unlikely to refresh last December's 74-month high anytime soon.
