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China’s National People’s Congress (NPC), the country’s top legislature, has proposed the target for the country's gross domestic product (GDP) growth to be at least 6% on year this year when holding its annual meeting in Beijing for the first day on March 5.
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China’s per capita gross domestic product averaged Yuan 72,447 ($11,190), or up 2% on year, confirming the country has been qualified as a well-off society, and it had also eliminated absolute poverty, as the living standard of all the poor people in the countryside exceeded the bottom line of Yuan 2,300/year, Mysteel Global noted from the latest release by the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
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JFE Steel, Japan’s second largest integrated steelmaker, has decided to lift its entire catalogue of products by over Yen 13,000/t ($121/t) for April sales to all domestic and overseas customers, spot and long-term contract buyers, the Tokyo-based steelmaker has announced. The across-the-board increase is to offset higher iron ore and coal prices, a company official confirmed on March 4.
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Japanese steel product prices will continue strengthening for the foreseeable future because of rising raw material prices and tight supplies of finished steel, according to Shinichi Nakamura, chairman of the Tekko Sangyo Kondankai, a monthly meeting of Japanese steel industry directors convened to discuss market trends.
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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.
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Japan’s eight major automakers posted a 4.5% on-year drop in January output at both the domestic and overseas plants to about 2.11 million units, according to the data released by automakers until February 26, and the decline was not about auto demand but the worldwide shortage of semi-conductors, according to market sources.
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China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the manufacturing industry slid for the third month in February, easing by 0.7 basis point on month to 50.6, with the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) attributing the on-month decline mainly to the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday over February 11-17. Despite the dip, the national PMI has nonetheless remained in the expansion zone for the twelfth month, according to Bureau’s latest release on February 28.
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Japan’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for its manufacturing industry for February gained 1.6 basis points on month to reach 51.4, returning to expansion for the first time since December and indicating that Japanese manufacturers are gradually emerging from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to index compiler au Jibun Bank Corporation on March 1, the February result showed the strongest improvement since December 2018. A reading over the threshold of 50 connotes expansion, Mysteel Global notes.
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China Baowu Steel Group (Baowu), the world’s and the country’s top steel producer, has been the first in China’s steel industry to pledge realizing carbon neutral by 2050, or ten years ahead of China’s targeted timeline as a country, Chen Derong, Baowu’s chairman, disclosed in an interview with China’s media.
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After remaining flat since last October, Japanese prices of 300-series stainless cold-rolled (CR) sheet have risen by Yen 10,000/tonne ($95/t) this week, Mysteel Global has learned, and dealers are now targeting a further Yen 10,000/t hike by end of March, according to market sources.
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Toyota Motor, Japan’s largest automaker, has informed its auto components suppliers that it will keep domestic automobile production at around 12,500-13,000 units/day during March-May, and its auto steel consumption, thus, will not be affected much by the short-time stoppage at half of its 28 assembly lines in Japan after the earthquake in mid-February, industry sources in Tokyo and Nagoya of central Japan shared on February 24.
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Japan’s largest integrated mill – Nippon Steel – denied a news report by Nihon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei), Japan’s business daily, that it has decided to suspend a blast furnace at its Kashima Area of East Nippon Works near Tokyo for a few years, though the domestic steel market sources see the likelihood.
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Japan’s exports of steel in all grades and forms declined by 13.3% on year to about 2.43 million tonnes for January, or the ninth month in a row with on-year drops, according to the preliminary data released by Japan’s Ministry of Finance on February 17, which was mainly due to the domestic steel mills’ preference for domestic sales over exports when supply was tight, Mysteel Global understood.
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Home is where parents are in the Chinese culture. But for this year’s Chinese New Year celebrations, many Chinese working in cities or in other countries away from their places of birth will probably have to bear the separation from their parents for CNY for the first time this year, and all for a common reason – the COVID-19 virus. For the unluckier ones, this might even be the second time they’ll miss their annual family get-together.
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China’s sales and output of automobiles jumped by 29.5% and 34.6% respectively on year last month, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) released the latest numbers on February 9, attributing the robust performance to the remaining solid demand for vehicles and at the same time low base numbers for January 2020.
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Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest integrated mill, now expects to be able to post a pre-tax profit of Yen 30 billion ($284.6 million) on a consolidated basis for fiscal 2020 (April 2020-March 2021), reversing its earlier projection of a Yen 60 billion pre-tax loss, the company announced on February 5.
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Japan’s crude steel output including both carbon and special steel is estimated to rise by 7.8% on quarter to about 23.7 million tonnes over January-March, according to a survey released by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) on February 3, indicating the further improvement in steel demand.
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Japan’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for its manufacturing industry for January 2021 has declined by 0.2 basis points on month to 49.8 mainly due to lower output with the resurgence of the COVID-19, according to the release from au Jibun Bank Corporation on February 1.
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The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for China’s manufacturing industry eased for the second month in January by another 0.6 basis point on month to 51.3, or in the expansion zone for the eleventh month, though the pace of expansion slowed down, as the resurgence of the COVID-19, Zhao Qinghe, senior statistician of the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) was quoted explaining in the release on January 31.
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For 2020, China’s sizeable industrial enterprises posted a 4.1% on-year increase in their total gross profits to Yuan 6.45 trillion ($1 trillion), with telecommunication, computer, and other electronics manufacturers and automakers being the top two contributors of the total profits, according to the latest sharing by the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on January 27.
