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Unhappily for steelmakers, heavy plate consumption among Japan’s shipbuilders seems certain to decline further as the yards adjust building programmes to cope with the continuing slump in new vessel orders, Mysteel Global notes. Total orders received by the Japanese builders in June tumbled by 52% on year to the equivalent of 342,200 gross tonnes in eight vessels and made for the fifth consecutive month of on-year declines, according to new data released by the Japan Ship Exporters’ Association (JSEA) on July 10.
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Japan’s crude steel demand for the July-September quarter is expected to plunge by 27.9% year on year and down 3.2% on quarter to 17.7 million tonnes, according to the forecast released by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) on July 8, indicating the domestic steel mills will have to maintain low production.
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Tensions between China and India amid a military standoff at the disputed northern borders could potentially hurt commodities trade and encourage diversion to illegal channels, Biman Mukherji and Ritwik Sinha report.
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Torrential rain in southern Japan from July 3 triggered flooding and landslides on Saturday, with some 40 people confirmed or presumed dead and 12 missing as of noon on July 6. No damage has been reported at major steel facilities on the island, but industry insiders fear the events over the weekend may negatively impact steel market sentiment.
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Doubtless to the delight of Japan’s steelmakers, the country’s largest auto maker, Toyota Motor, has informed its auto parts suppliers it has revised upwards planned production at its domestic plants in July and August, explaining that it expected auto demand to increase. Industry sources in Nagoya and Tokyo said Friday the car maker intends to produce 6-13% more vehicles than it had outlined in its earlier forecast tabled in late May.
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Taiwan's finished steel production could decline by 6.5% on year in 2020 to 23.2 million tonnes, mainly due to affection of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Sino-US trade friction on its local steel demand, and the persistent competition from the lower-priced imports, Ting-Han Lai, secretary of International Affairs Committee of Taiwan Steel & Iron Industry Association, shared at the 2020 SEAISI e-Conference on July 1.
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Japan’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for its manufacturing industry recovered by 1.7 basis point on month to 40.1 for June, indicating that the operations and market sentiment had been improving after a few months of declines since February, according to the release from au Jibun Bank Corporation on July 1.
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By the end of May, Japan’s carbon steel stocks at steel mills and distributors totaled 5.93 million tonnes, up 2.4% on month, or the first rise in three months, according to the data released on June 30 by the Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF), indicating faster domestic demand decline and the no effect shown from production cuts, according to the market sources.
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Japan’s eight major automakers posted their May production fell 62.8% on year or 1% on month to 912,377 units in total from all of their global plants, Mysteel Global calculated basing on their individual releases on June 29, which was mainly due to the negative impact of the COVID-19 on their operations and market demand, according to market sources.
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China's steel PMI for June eased to 49.3, or down 1.6 basis points from May, according to the release by CFLP Steel Logistics Professional Committee on June 30. A detailed report will be posted soon.
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Despite the notable rise seen in the January-March quarter, the FOB price of Australian premium hard coking coal (HCC) is forecast to decline from an average of $179/tonne in 2019 to $126/t this year, impacted by weakened global demand, Australia’s Department of Industry, Innovation and Science estimated in its quarterly report published on June 29.
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Concerns are mounting among Japanese stainless producers and dealers about the large volumes of stainless cold-rolled coil imports arriving, and fears that the domestic market will be disrupted. “I can’t see any signs that imports are tapering off and yet, domestic demand is shrinking,” a sales official from a major stainless distributor in Tokyo lamented. “The supply-demand balance is certain to soften further, which make our business situation even more severe,” he said.
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Shortly after the China Iron & Steel Association (CISA) called for more fixed-priced deals in the physical iron ore market, Hebei Iron and Steel Group (HBIS) has opened its “HBIS International Iron Ore Supermarket” for business on the e-trading platform run by the Beijing Iron Ore Trading Center Corporation (COREX).
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Steel production in Asia in May including that of China, the world’s largest steelmaking country, posted a 3.3% on-year decline to 113.5 million tonnes, while the whole world’s steel output fell more substantially by 8.7% on year to 148.8 million tonnes, according to the latest data from the World Steel
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Japan’s crude steel output including carbon and special steel dropped more substantially in May, down 31.8% on year to about 5.9 million tonnes, as against the 23.5% on-year fall in April, which was mainly due to the negative impact of the pandemic on steel demand, according to the latest data released by the Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF) on June 22.
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Unlike the previous years, Japan’s electric-arc-furnace (EAF) mills will not stock up much finished steel for sales in July-August, even though their plants will be shut down for about one or two weeks to reduce power usage as usual during the country’s peak power consumption in summer, as demand in 2020 has been too stagnant, mini-mill sources confirmed on June 19.
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The falloff in orders for Japanese steel placed by overseas customers grappling with the coronavirus outbreak led the country’s steel exports during May to plunge 17.5% on year to 2.48 million tonnes, according to preliminary data released by Japan’s Ministry of Finance on June 17. The May total was also down 11.8% on month, the data show.
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Japan’s crude steel output for the fiscal 2020 (April 2020-March 2021) may decline to around 80 million tonne from the 98.43 million tonnes for FY19, predicted Eiji Hashimoto, the newly-appointed chairman of the Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF) on June 16 after the first press conference as chairman.
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The China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), the country’s governing body of all futures exchanges, has granted its approval, allowing three commodity exchanges to launch options contracts for six industrial products over June-August for trading, according to its official post on June 12.
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The declines in China’s total fixed asset investment (FAI) and the funding in the property market slowed further by May, with the former down 6.3% on year over January-May as against the 10.3% on-year fall in the first four months, and the latter dipping 0.3% as against the 3.3% fall by April, according to the latest data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on June 15.
