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As China’s fight against Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (NCP) continues to show encouraging signs of progress of late, more Chinese enterprises have been resuming operations after this year’s extended Chinese New Year holiday break. Several provinces have reported that over 70% of the industrial enterprises they host have restarted work, Mysteel learnt from announcements of local authorities on February 19.
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Domestic prices of ferromolybdenum (FeMo) in China have continued to decrease over the past week from their near four-month high reached on February 13 of Yuan 124,000/tonne ($17,658/t), with the price of 60% ferromoly as of February 20 dipping to Yuan 114,000/t, Mysteel’s data showed. Lower bid prices from steel mills for February were to blame, a market source said on Friday.
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Tsingshan Group, China’s and the world’s largest stainless producer, has announced that for this month’s purchases of high-carbon ferro-chrome (FeCr), it has decided to maintain the same buying price as for January of Yuan 5,797/tonne ($828.8/t) including 13% VAT in terms of delivery to its plant, according to the company’s notice on February 18.
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Retail aluminum ingot stocks across China climbed further during the week to February 14 to reach a recent eight-month new high due to stagnant demand for the light metal and blocked logistics across the country, according to the latest stocks report from Mymetal, Mysteel’s nonferrous metals data collecting arm.
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Stocks of imported chrome ore at the six major ports across China monitored by Mysteel had risen to 4 million tonnes as of February 10, a record high since Mysteel launched the survey in February 2011. The increase in the total, which excludes ore in detained containers and stocks aboard tramp vessels on river, was mainly due to lower daily discharge rates and continuing new ship arrivals, market sources said on Wednesday.
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China’s central government has called for “business resumption, especially in key industries, as soon as possible”, even though the battle against the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (NCP) is still ongoing, senior officials from four top-level governing bodies including the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) stated at a joint press conference in Beijing on February 11.
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Social Aluminum ingot stocks in China piled up to its seven-month high of over 1 million tonnes as of February 10, as the market has remained quiet amid the continuing battling against the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (NCP) outbreak, showed the latest survey by Mymetal, Mysteel’s nonferrous metals data collecting arm.
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The outbreak of Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (NCP) in China is expected to hurt the country’s auto production and sales, at least in Q1, as the pace of manufacturers’ production is slowing down and currently, consumers are too distracted to buy cars, industry watchers have told Mysteel Global. In addition, production and exports of automotive components made in China for vehicle manufacturers abroad are also being disrupted.
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China’s General Administration of Customs announced on February 7 that it will release January-February cumulative data in March starting 2020.
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Lian Weiliang, vice head of China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), emphasized at a press conference on February 3 in Beijing that the impact of the Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak on China’s economy will be temporary and short-term.
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China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the country’s manufacturing industry inched down to the brink of the expansion zone, falling 0.2 basis point on month to 50 for January without taken into consideration of the impact of the Novel Cornavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak, according to the latest release from China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on January 31.
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China’s Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the steel industry recovered 4 basis points on month to 47.1 for January, indicating an overall stable market, however, “the outbreak of the Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) will affect both the steel production and demand in the near term”, the official index compiler CFLP Steel Logistics Professional Committee (CSLPC) warned in its release on January 31.
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January 31 was supposed to be the day when most Chinese employees would have returned to work, happy and refreshed, after the official holiday over January 24-30 for the Chinese New Year (CNY) celebrations. Not for 2020, though, as Beijing has announced that the holiday will be extended until February 2.
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China’s production of air conditioners, refrigerators and washing machines witnessed rises in 2019, mainly thanks to the stable demand tracking the domestic property market and to increasing demand for China-made appliances from abroad, according to the latest data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
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For 2019, China’s gross domestic product grew 6.1% on year to Yuan 99 trillion ($14 trillion), with the final result coming within the central government’s targeted range for last year of 6-6.5%, according to National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data released on the release on January 17. “Most of the tasks were fulfilled, laying a solid foundation for China to develop into a well-off society,” NBS commented.
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Fixed asset investment (FAI) in China’s manufacturing sector grew by a total of 5.4% on year during full year 2019, up 0.2 percentage point from the first eleven months, according to the latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released on Friday. FAI in the domestic property market increased by 9.9% on year during January-December, though this was off by a tiny 0.3 percentage point from the January-November reading, the data show.
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Members of China Smelters Purchase Team (CSPT), comprising most of the copper smelters in China, big and small, have so far taken no action of cutting their copper output into 2020 though they had vowed to do so on December 26 2019, Mysteel Global noted.
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China’s fixed asset investment (FAI) in manufacturing sector grew 5.4% on year for 2019 among which the FAI into property market up 9.9% on year, according to the latest statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics. A detailed report will be posted soon.
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China’s gross domestic product (GDP) grew 6.1% on year for 2019 to Yuan 99 trillion ($14 trillion), according to the latest statistics from the National Bureau of Statistics. A detailed report will be posted soon.
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China and the US trade tension has shown signs of easing as the two countries signed their phase-one economic and trade agreement on January 15 (Washington time) after nearly two years of trade frictions and talks, according to a news report by Xinhua News Agency on January 16.
