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Japan’s domestic demand for heavy plate has been recovering but rather slowly as sales to the domestic manufactures such as machinery sector have been up while the volume to the construction projects had been stagnated, which has made it difficult for distributors to transfer the price increases by the domestic steel producers in the past couple of months, sources shared on December 3.
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By the end of October, stocks of carbon steel hot-rolled, cold-rolled and coated coils and sheets at Japan’s steel producers, coil centers and distributors declined to a new low since April 2010, down 2.9% or 108,000 tonnes on month to about 3.56 million tonnes, according to the latest data released by Nippon Steel on December 2, indicating that Japan’s supply of carbon steel flats have been tightening, according to market sources.
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Total sales of heavy trucks across China in November could have increased by as much as 26% or by 26,000 units on year to around 128,000 units, according to a prediction made by Beijing-headquartered Commercial Vehicle World (CVWorld) on December 2. Though declining by 7% on month, last month’s sales still showed that China’s trucks market has continued to flourish in fourth quarter, with every likelihood of staying positive for the foreseeable future.
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New Japanese government data indicating the impact the COVID-produced economic slowdown is having on private construction is giving steel industry insiders more cause for concern, especially for their business during the early part of next year.
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Japan’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for its manufacturing industry recovered by 0.3 basis points on month to 49 in November, or a new high since August 2019, indicating that the country has been slowly getting rid of the adverse impact of the CONVID-19, according to the release from au Jibun bank Corporation on December 1.
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For October, Japan’s carbon steel exports posted an on-year decline for the sixth consecutive month, down 10% on year but almost flat on month to about 1.7 million tonnes, while China remained the top buyer posting an on-year gain, according to the latest data from the Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF) on November 30.
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China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the manufacturing industry recovered by 0.7 basis point to reach 52.1 in November after the small decline in October, according to the latest release from the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on November 30. The result shows that this weathervane of Chinese manufacturing activity has remained above the threshold of 50 connoting expansion for nine straight months and indicates that the performance recovery of the country’s manufacturing industry is accelerating, NBS said.
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China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for its manufacturing industry recovered by 0.7 basis point on month to 52.1 for November, or above the benchmark of 50 for the ninth month, indicating the pick-up in pace of recovery in the country's manufacturing sector, according to the latest release from the country's
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China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the steel industry rose by 3.5 basis points on month to 49.3 for November, with both demand and supply having shown signs of further growths for the second month, according to the latest release from the CFLP Steel Logistics Professional Committee. A detailed report
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The growth in on-year profits of sizable Chinese industrial enterprises over January-October reached 0.7%, according to the latest data released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on November 27.
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China exported 2.4 million tonnes of flat steel products in October, which was higher by 200,000 tonnes or 9% from September and making for the second successive on-month rise, according to the latest statistics from China’s General Administration of Customs (GACC). The uptick in exports reflected Chinese mills and traders hurrying to fill a shortage of supply of finished steel in international markets, plus the narrowing price gap which China’s exporters had identified between domestic and export prices.
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Osaka Steel, Japan’s largest steel section producer, has added Yen 3,000/tonne ($29/t) on its list prices of sections for December domestic sales, mainly to offset higher scrap prices, a company official confirmed on November 26.
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Toyota Motor, Japan’s largest automaker, has informed its auto component suppliers that it will keep domestic vehicle production at above 13,000 units/day until February, industry sources in Nagoya and Tokyo said on Wednesday. The projected daily rate will be slightly lower compared with previous months, but the level remains high overall, meaning that steel consumption by the company and its vast network of components suppliers will likely stay firm, they said.
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Crude steel output amongst the 64 countries under the monthly survey of the World Steel Association (WSA) amounted to 1.5 billion tonnes over January to October, down 2% on year, according to new WSA data. But the pace of the decline had slowed by 1.2 percentage points from January-September result, indicating that steel producers globally are gradually emerging from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Japan’s crude steel production in October including both carbon and special steel declined by 11.7% on year to some 7.2 million tonnes, making for the eighth consecutive monthly on-year decrease, according to the latest data released by the Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF) on November 24.
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The annual information exchange between steel industry officials in Japan and Taiwan held recently identified no major outstanding issues. “Steel trade between Taiwan and Japan is currently smooth,” an official from Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) commented on Tuesday. In previous years, Japanese exports of heavy sections had been a source of friction, but those tensions have eased, Mysteel Global understands.
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China’s production of the four mainstream electric home appliances continued with recovery in October, with refrigerator posting the sharpest 25.8% on year gain in production, according to the latest data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which was mainly due to robust demand from overseas, Mysteel Global noted.
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Japan’s all kinds of steel exports for October fell 13% on year to about 2.47 million tonnes, or the sixth consecutive month posting an on-year decline, mainly as the Japanese integrated mills had been prioritizing supplies to domestic customers, Mysteel Global understood from the preliminary data released by Japan’s Ministry of Finance on November 18.
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Production of rebar in China totalled 23.8 million tonnes in October, up 1.5% on month or 6.5% on year, according to the latest data released by China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
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The backlog of construction orders for new ships held by Chinese shipbuilders had slipped further by end-October despite a slight recovery in new vessel orders last month, according to the latest release by the China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry (CANSI) on November 18. Hovering below the threshold of 80 million dead weight tons (dwt) for six successive months, the yards’ backlog by the end of last month had sunk further to around 71 million dwt, CANSI reported.
