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China’s crude steel production found another burst of energy during April and May – after leaping by nearly 10% over January-March – to refresh new output highs and in turn, fuel market concerns about oversupply, according to a report in China Metallurgical News on June 19, according to a report in China Metallurgical News on June 19.
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Both the Chinese authorities and the domestic steel mills have been quietly intensifying their endeavours in growing the country’s recycling business to be prepared for the greener growth in the next five to ten years.
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China wants more of its steelmakers to locate at the coastal areas - not just for their health but for everyone else’s. Begun tentatively a decade ago when land was needed for special events – the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games and Expo 2010 in Shanghai, to name but two – the relocation of steelmakers from city areas to coastal regions is now a heavily-promoted industrial guidance upheld by many local and provincial governments. Less widely publicized are the merits for the involved steel mills to get to know their new neighbours.
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China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the country’s top economic planning body, is formulating policies to promote nationwide consumption of eco-friendly and high intelligence auto, white goods and electronics products, according to Xinhua reports on April 18 and April 21.
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Chinese imported iron ore prices for spot cargoes and in futures contracts are essentially at two-year highs in response to extensive news from major iron ore miners over the past several days warning of disruptions to iron ore supplies. At the same time, the recovery in Chinese steel mills’ iron ore demand plus factors relating to China’s economic outlook are also serving to propel prices higher, according to market sources.
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The continuous downward adjustment seen in China’s domestic steel scrap market over the past month is likely to continue in April as steel mills’ scrap stocks may keep rising for some time, market watchers said Wednesday. But they suggested that if the next few weeks witness a sustainable rebound in finished-steel prices, the scrap market could experience moderate rises in mid- to late-April.
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Steel plants are supposed to be dirty, dusty and devoid of color, right? Perhaps with a few scruffy shrubs in the factory’s mandatory ‘Green Belt’? What amazed the group of 37 foreign and Chinese visitors when they strolled into the worksite of Nanjing Iron & Steel Co (NISCO) on March 29 in East China’s Nanjing, therefore, was nothing about steel at all, but all the beautiful blossoms and the peach trees bordering roads within the works and in gardens around facilities sheds.
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Vale updated the development with its 30 million tonnes/year Brucutu mine on March 21 Brazilian time, confirming that the mine has been allowed to return to operations in three day upon the final approval from the related governing body.
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China’s decision to reduce the value-added tax on manufacturers to 13% on April 1 from the prevalent 16% may not definitely lead to lower prices of ferrous products including iron ore and steel or downstream products such as auto, market sources said on Monday and Tuesday.
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A quarter of this year has almost passed yet the prospects for the world’s largest market for iron ore for 2019 remain very mixed. Industry watchers in China seem to agree that several factors are looming that will influence supply-demand conditions, but views differ about the impact these might have on prices.
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China’s steel industry is in general excited at the news on Beijing’s mulling cutting the value-added tax (VAT) on the domestic manufacturers and small and micro enterprises to 13% from the present 16%, possibly in 2019, expecting the measure to reduce their production costs, helping them enhance their competitiveness especially in the global market, according to market sources on March 5 and 6.
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Shen Wenrong, chairman of Jiangsu Shagang Group, China’s largest producer of long steel products, has added his voice to those warning that after enjoying the “best year” in 2018, the country’s steel industry faces a much tougher 2019.
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With severe air pollution expected to envelop large swathes of China this week and next, industries identified as major sources of pollution such as steel mills will likely come under close monitoring by local governments ready to slap emergency restrictions on production, steel sector sources warned Tuesday. But though stern official announcements and excited Chinese media reports have raised anxiety levels among affected enterprises up a few notches, steel market watchers counsel calm, maintaining that disruptions to production are unlikely to be any more severe than those the industry has already endured so far this winter.
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Iron ore market participants in and out of China are divided on the near-term outlook after price spikes firstly on the Singapore Exchange over February 4-8 and then on the Dalian Commodity Exchange (DCE) on February 11, the first working day in China after the Chinese New Year holiday.
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As Brazilian miner Vale continues the assess the grim cost, human and financial, of last week’s tailing dam collapse at its Feijão mine in Southern Brazil’s Minas Gerais state, buyers and traders of its iron ore in China are divided on the impact the disaster might have on their business.
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What were the key contributors to developments in China's ferrous industry in 2018?
Which important factors do you need to keep an eye on going into 2019?
Identify opportunities in 2019 with this infographic from Mysteel Global.
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Leading Chinese commodity market intelligence agency Mysteel has successfully completed an external assurance review of its iron ore price indices in relation to the IOSCO Principles for Financial Benchmarks.
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The start of production restrictions for winter among Chinese steelmakers and their raw materials processors has revealed a vast difference in approach to the issue among steelmakers and local authorities in the country’s two largest steelmaking centres, Tangshan and Handan in North China’s Hebei province. But for the 200-odd steelmakers and merchant coke producers the cities host, the differences in policy execution by their city governments may be rendered irrelevant by nature if this week’s pollution alert emergency becomes a worrying regularity.
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The Sydvaranger Iron Project in Bjørnevatn in Norway’s deep north is preparing to restart iron ore mining after the company operating the mine, Sydvaranger AS, disclosed that Orion Mine Finance, a New York-headquartered mining-focused investment fund, had pledged to provide working capital to support the ongoing development of the project.
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More evidence is emerging of the Chinese central government’s determination to ensure no compromise on its drive for clearer skies over urban centres this winter but at the same time individual enterprises including steel producers have been treated fairly with no more “one for all” simplified moves by the local authorities.
