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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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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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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.
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The value of home electrical appliance sales in Japan during 2020 reached Yen 2.54 trillion ($24.45 billion), up only 1% on year but still the highest since 1996, according to the latest data released by the Japan Electrical Manufacturers’ Association on January 25. JEMA attributed the rise to more people spending more time at home to stay safe from the COVID virus last year.
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Japan posted a 51-year low in its crude steel output for the calendar year of 2020, which slumped for the sixth consecutive year by another 16.2% on year to about 83.2 million tonnes, according to the latest data from the Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF), and this was mainly due to the adverse impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, a JISF official commented on January 25.
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Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO), Japan’s largest electric power company, has asked large industrial power consumers including electric-arc furnace steel producers to decrease their power consumption, an order that could impact mini-mill production and undermine scrap prices.
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Japan’s total steel exports during calendar 2020 fell 4.8% on year to 31.26 million tonnes, according to preliminary data released by Japan’s Ministry of Finance on January 21. Last year’s result marked the fourth year in a row that annual export volume had fallen below 40 million tonnes, with the reduction mainly attributed to the negative impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on steel consumption worldwide.
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Chinese steel mills would not have foreseen a rather robust December in 2020 though steel prices had climbed out of the deep hole since last April and stayed on an uptrend with the resumption of the economic and industrial activities afterwards for the rest of the year.
