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China's domestic steel prices are expected to be rangebound for the rest of 2018, as high production costs this year will ease the downward pressure from higher supplies, Qu Xiuli, Vice Chairperson of the China Iron & Steel Association (CISA) said at the 3rd China Ferrous Derivatives International Conference in Shanghai on June 21.
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A three-year work plan to fight atmospheric pollution unveiled by China's State Council in a meeting Wednesday could have wide-ranging implications for the country's steel industry in the tougher measures promised to prevent the installation of new capacity in existing steel-producing and steel-consuming regions.
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Mysteel's national average HRB400 20mm dia rebar benchmark price reversed up on June 12 by Yuan 14/tonne ($2.2/t) on day to Yuan 4,180/t including the 16% VAT, as market sentiment improved on a series of restriction measures including the month-long environmental protection inspections in most of key steel production bases since end of May or early June.
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Prices of billets in China have maintained strong upward momentum since the start of June as the central government's crackdown on substandard environmental protection facilities has led steelmakers to slow production, further tightening the market supply of semis.
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The most active lead contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) jumped to an 8-month high of Yuan 20,675/tonne ($3,230/tonne) at the close of trading on Wednesday's morning session. Behind the spike were supply concerns as smelters come under the scrutiny of the environmental protection inspections currently underway across the country, market sources explained on June 6.
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China's central government has dispatched an inspection team to East China's Jiangsu province to review pollution control efforts among the local industrial enterprises over June 5-July 5, according to an announcement of China's Ministry of Ecology and Environment (MEE) on June 5.
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China's daily crude steel output is thought to have risen by 2.2% over May 21-31 from the previous ten days to reach 2.31 million tonnes/day, according to the findings of Mysteel's latest survey among 348 Chinese mills.
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Mysteel's national average HRB 400 20mm dia rebar benchmark price rose for a third consecutive day on May 31, gaining another Yuan 15/tonne ($2.3/t) on day to Yuan 4,107/t including the 16% VAT on Thursday. Driving the price higher were market jitters about supply disruptions amid Beijing's ongoing sweep of environmental protection facilities nationwide, and on improved expectations for the market over the short term.
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China's daily crude steel output surged by 2.7% or 65,000 tonnes/day during May 11-20 from the preceding ten days to average 2.53 million t/d and refreshing the record yet again, according to the latest data published by the China Iron & Steel Association (CISA) on May 31.
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Chinese steelmakers in the production hubs around Tangshan in northern China or Shanghai in the East are not the only ones braced for the arrival of central government officials casting highly critical eyes over their smoke stacks or effluent pools. Mysteel has learned that operators of electric arc furnace-based steel plants in Southeast China's Guangdong province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region are already preparing for teams of environmental protection inspectors to swoop on their factories over the next few days.
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China's central government is realising that small and readily-transportable induction furnaces used for steelmaking are not as easy to eradicate as it had thought and is launching another blitz on those which escaped its nationwide crackdown twelve months ago.
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Aluminum Corporation of China (Chalco), the state-own aluminum producer, has inked an agreement with the government of South China's Yunnan province to join a strategic restructuring plan which could see Beijing-headquartered Chalco become an even larger force in global aluminum.
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Teams of inspectors being dispatched by China's central government to verify the status of environmental protection facilities at industrial enterprises including steelmakers nationwide are being warned that their presence at plant sites should not disrupt production. This will be good news for steel consumers in many parts of China for whom steel prices have risen recently on market fears of supply shortages caused by works stoppages.
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Chinese production of ferrosilicon rose by an average of 5.7% or 23,395 tonnes to reach 431,150 tonnes in April, according to Mysteel's latest monthly survey among the country's 60 major FeSi smelters and released on May 23. The average was also 20.4% higher from a year ago, the survey found.
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China imported 130,000 tonnes of aluminum scrap in April, down 28% on month and off 23% on year, according to the latest data from the General Administration of Customs released on May 23. The April result took the total for the first four months of this year to 620,000 tonnes, a decline of 11% from last year.
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China's National Development and Reform Commission on Monday confirmed that government authorities will begin a new round of random checks on steelmakers nationwide to ensure that scrapped or 'illegal' steel capacity is not being quietly reintroduced.
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China's daily crude steel output nationwide during the period of May 1-10 was estimated at 2.47 million tonnes/day, up 1.3% or 32,000 tonnes/day from the previous ten days, according to the latest released from China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) on May 22.
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Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation (FHS), the new integrated steelworks in north central Vietnam's Ha Tinh province, ignited its second blast furnace on Friday morning, officially doubling the mill's raw steel capacity to 7 million tonnes/year. A company official confirmed the blow in to Mysteel but declined to provide more details.
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Formosa Ha Tinh Steel Corporation (FHS), the newly-integrated largest steelworks in Ha Tinh province, north central Vietnam, has indefinitely delayed the blow-in of its second blast furnace, a company source told Mysteel Thursday.
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The price of Q235 billet in Tangshan, the most resilient among all the traded steel products in China, increased by another Yuan 20/tonne ($3.1/t) day on day to Yuan 3,610/t EXW and including the 16% VAT on May 16, partly due to the positive market sentiment amid better sales.
