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Over January-April, China's coking coal imports from all origins increased by 11.7% on year to reach 16.5 million tonnes, with the growth higher than the 9% on-year growth in the first three months, according to recent data from China's General Administration of Customs (GACC).
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Inventories of finished stainless steel at commercial warehouses in Wuxi and Foshan, China's two core stainless trading hubs, emptied by another 8,192 tonnes or 1.1% on week over May 13-19 to reach 751,715 tonnes, according to Mysteel's new survey.
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For March, Japan's core machinery orders from domestic users other than shipbuilders and power equipment makers increased 7.1% on month in value to Yen 869.5 billion ($6.8 billion), or the first on-month drop in three months, according to the release by the Japanese government's Cabinet Office on May 19.
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Over May 13-19, the blast furnace capacity utilization rate among China's 247 steel mills under Mysteel's regular survey had climbed for the fourth week, up by another 0.38 percentage point on week to 88.66%, as more blast furnaces in North China had resumed their operations, Mysteel Global noted.
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Over May 12-18, total coke production from 230 Chinese independent coking plants under Mysteel's survey remained largely stable, down by a comparatively small 600 tonnes/day on week to 599,800 t/d. Accordingly, the average coking capacity utilization rate of these surveyed coke producers also appeared stable, down by a tiny 0.07 percentage points on week to 82.71%.
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Kyoei Steel, Japan's largest rebar producer, has decided to keep its rebar base prices unchanged on month at Yen 120,000/tonne ($937/t) for June domestic sales, to give the market another month to digest the previous hikes, the company announced on May 19.
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On May 19, China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar dropped for the sixth working day, down by another Yuan 42/tonne ($6.2/t) on day to touch a 3.5-month low of Yuan 4,832/t including the 13% VAT, while spot sales of construction steel including rebar recovered by 32.5% on day after two days of declines, both according to Mysteel's assessments.
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The total global steel trade in 2021 touched 416 million tonnes (mnt), up 11% from 374 mnt seen in the previous calendar year, data collated by SteelMint reveals. However, this volume is still lower than the pre-Covid 2019 level of 435 mnt (worldsteel).
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Inventories of the five major carbon steel products comprising rebar, wire rod, hot-rolled coil, cold-rolled coil and medium plate at the 184 Chinese steel mills under Mysteel's regular survey reversed down slightly by 0.2% on week over May 12-18 after the continuous rise over the prior three weeks, mainly thanks to increased deliveries to traders' warehouses and the decrease in mills' output.
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Vietnam's leading steel mill, Formosa Ha Tinh (FHS), has steeply lowered its monthly HRC offers for July sales, sources informed SteelMint. The revised offer for skin-pass HRC (SAE1006) stands at $855-860/t CIF Ho Chi Minh, while that of pipe making grade (SS400) stands at $850/t CIF.
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Chinese prices of imported iron ore recovered after two days of decline on Thursday, while trading activities for portside stocks and seaborne cargoes diverged, with that for the former cooling while business for the latter improved.
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Inventories of the five major finished steel products held by Chinese traders continued to decline for the second week over May 13-19, though the pace had slowed to 1.7% on week, as against the 3% drop a week earlier. Slowing the pace of decline was the weakness of steel demand, despite the fact that the caseload of COVID infections had eased in some cities such as Shanghai, sources said.
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Over January-April, China's production of air-conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines declined on-year, while that of televisions rose, according to the data released by China's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on May 18.
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Carbon steel sales at China Steel Corp (CSC), Taiwan's top integrated steel producer headquartered in Kaohsiung, South Taiwan, continued to improve in April to reach a 13-month high of 828,297 tonnes, higher by another 26,670 tonnes or 3.3% from the previous month, according to the company's monthly results release on May 18.
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For April, Japan's steel exports declined by 0.3% on year to about 2.7 million tonnes, according to the preliminary data released by the country's Ministry of Finance on May 19. Trading sources believed some deliveries to China must have been delayed due to the COVID-induced lockdown in Shanghai.
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China's rebar production witnessed a 13.6% on-year decline over January-April to reach 75.8 million tonnes, according to the latest data from the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). Among the total, 20.6 million tonnes were produced during April, down 14.1% on year.
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China's run-of-mine (ROM) iron ore output reached 330.8 million tonnes over January-April, posting an on-year decrease of just 0.9% compared to the on-year growth of 2.1% for the first quarter of this year, according to the new data from the country's National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
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Nippon Steel, Japan's largest integrated mill and a leading H-beam producer, has decided to keep its H-beam prices for domestic spot sales for May unchanged, to give the market a month to digest its previous rises, the company announced on May 18.
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On May 18, China's national price of HRB400E 20mm dia rebar eased for the fifth working day, down by another Yuan 40/tonne ($5.9/t) on day to hit a 2.5-month low of Yuan 4,874/t including the 13% VAT, while spot sales of construction steel including rebar slipped further by 11.7% on day, both according to Mysteel's assessments.
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The imported ferrous scrap market in South Asia continued to be under pressure due to currency fluctuation. Buyers turned cautious about booking any fresh deals and are waiting for clear market directions.
