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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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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.
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China’s economy has been improving steadily and despite uncertainties facing the global market, the government is confident about maintaining the consistent recovery and realizing the country’s development targets for 2020 by relying on its internal strength, Fu Linghui, spokesperson of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), shared at a press conference on November 16.
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Japan’s sales of carbon steel products for both the domestic market and export in September rose 5.6% on year to about 5.23 million tonnes, according to the latest data released by the Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF) on November 16. “A clear recovery in sales has finally appeared,” a JISF official commented.
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Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest integrated mill, expects to sell only about 620,000 tonnes of carbon and special steel seamless pipes during the current fiscal (April 2020-March 2021), down 36.1% on year, as the COVID-19 pandemic has brought oil and gas development projects in many countries to a halt.
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The on-year growth in China’s crude steel output picked up in pace over January-October, gaining 5.5% on year to 874 million tonnes as against the 4.5% on-year rise for the first nine months, though its daily crude steel output for October dropped to a low since April, according to the latest release from the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on November 16.
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Altogether 15 countries including 13 in Asia and Australia and New Zealand signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) on November 15 via a virtual conference, which has created the world’s largest free trade bloc and has been great news in general to the commodities market sources, Mysteel Global noted.
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China's fixed asset investment grew 1.8% on year over January-October, or 1 percentage point higher than that for the first three quarters, among which, the funding in the property grew 6.3% on year or 0.7 percentage point higher than the gain over January-September, according to the latest release by the
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China's crude steel output grew 5.5% on year to about 874 million tonnes over January-October, with the output for October alone up 12.7% on year to 92.2 million tonnes, according to the latest release by the country's National Bureau of Statistics. A detailed report will be posted soon.
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Japan’s core machinery orders from domestic users excluding shipbuilders and power equipment makers during the current quarter are forecast to drop by 1.9% on a seasonally adjusted basis from the July-September period to Yen 2.18 trillion ($20.78 billion), according to a release from the Japanese government’s Cabinet Office on November 12. The decline would make for the sixth consecutive on-quarter decline, the statement noted.
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In October, China’s auto sales persisted on the uptrend, up 0.1% on month or 12.5% on year to 2.6 million units, and among the total, new-energy vehicles (NEVs) sales grew more remarkably, jumping 13.9% on month or 104.5% on year, according to the latest data from the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM) on November 11.
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Japan’s crude steel output including both carbon and special steel is estimated to grow to about 21.8 million tonnes over October-December, or up 14.9% on quarter, according to a release by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) on November 10, indicating the continuing demand improvement.
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Sales of excavators and other construction equipment across China increased by a huge 60.5% on year to reach 27,331 units last month, a performance which saw total sales over January-October climb by 34.5% on year to 263,839 units, according to the latest statistics from the China Construction Machinery Association (CCMA). Moreover, the growth had expanded from the 32% on-year rise recorded during January-September, it noted in its November 11 report.
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China’s foreign trade value grew faster at 1.1% on year over January-October against the 0.7% growth for the first nine months, and both exports and imports showed the continuing improvement, with the former having increased faster by 2.4% on year and the latter narrowed the on-year decrease to 0.5% on year, the latest data from the country’s General Administration of Customs showed.
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Kobe Steel, Japan’s third largest integrated mill, adjusted upward its crude steel output target for fiscal 2020 (April 2020 - March 2021) by 4.6% or 250,000 tonnes from the projection in August to 5.65 million tonnes on the anticipation of better demand from the domestic auto sector and related customers for the rest of the FY20.
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Final data for last month’s sales of heavy trucks in China will likely show a 41% surge on year to around 129,000 units, even though compared with September, October sales fell by 14.3%, according to the latest report published by Beijing-headquartered Commercial Vehicle World (CVWorld) on November 2. Full-year sales would definitely exceed 1.5 million units, it predicted.
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The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the steel industry of Hebei province, the country’s top steel production base in the north region, slipped for the second straight month in October to 51.8, down another 0.5 basis point on month, according to the latest release by the Hebei Metallurgical Industry Association.
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Japan’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for its manufacturing industry recovered by 1 basis points on month to 48.7 in October, suggesting that the industry still hovered in the contraction zone despite moderate recovery, though the latest PMI had been highest thus far in 2020, according to the release from au Jibun Bank Corporation on November 2.
