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Indian ferro chrome producers are now offering ferro chrome at INR 66,000/t in line with limited demand from the domestic market. Buyers are negotiating for lower prices, while producers are now firm with their offers as they don’t have scope for further correction.
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On December 3, China’s rebar price saw four days of decline in a row with construction steel sales reversing down as traders was less active in concluding deals, Mysteel Global noted.
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SteelMint's pellet export index (FOB east coast India) increased around $5/t this week. Index stood at $141/t on 2nd Dec'20. Indian major pellet makers have not been offering material for exports since past few weeks, considering higher realizations in domestic market. Demand from China remained firm due to less availability of Indian cargoes.
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Stocks of the five major finished steel products held by the 184 Chinese steel mills monitored by Mysteel continued to mount for the second week over November 26-December 2, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly survey. As steel output decreased further during the period, the climb in stocks pointed to slowing demand from steel users, survey respondents said.
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Prices of the steelmaking raw materials including iron ore, coke and steel scrap have been performing strongly, soaring their respective multi-year highs in China recently, paying little attention to the stalling domestic steel prices, and this may continue in the foreseeable future too, according to Chinese market sources.
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Inventories of the five major steel items held by Chinese traders decreased for the eighth successive week over November 27-December 3, slipping by another 626,700 tonnes on week, according to Mysteel’s latest survey. But the decline narrowed further from the on-week fall of 742,300 tonnes over the prior survey period, as long steel demand in northern areas weakened while orders for flat steel still performed well.
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Stocks of imported iron ore sintering fines at China’s 64 steel mills under Mysteel’s regular survey continued to increase over November 19-December 2, rising by another 172,300 tonnes or 1% over the fortnight, even though daily consumption had edged up over the same period.
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Vale, the world’s top iron ore miner, targets to produce 315-335 million tonnes of iron ore in 2021, or higher from the estimated 300-305 million tonnes for 2020, which will be mainly from the higher run-rate of the iron ore operations, according to its “Vale Day 2020” sharing on December 2.
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Stainless steel consumption in China is expected to reach 25.5 million tonnes this year, higher by 1 million tonnes or 4.2% on year despite the impact of COVID-19, and by 2025 the country’s stainless consumption will exceed 35 million tonnes, according to Liu Yanping, secretary general of Stainless Steel Council of China Special Steel Enterprises Association (CSSC).
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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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Indian billet export prices have soared in recent deals, going up by $25-30/t week-on-week (w-o-w) in a recent export tender hosted by a state-owned steel mill.
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As of December 2, China’s rebar price in the spot market slid for the third consecutive day, although the daily trading volume moved up modestly, Mysteel Global understands.
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NMDC, India’s largest iron ore producer, can restart the 7mnt capacity Donimalai mine with the Central government’s official stamp of approval to a temporary levy or 'premium' of 22.5 per cent of an average sale price.
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China’s imported iron ore market saw prices for both port inventories and seaborne cargoes strengthen on December 2, with the SEADEX 62% Fe Australian Fines price increasing by $3.7/dmt on day to $136.55/dmt CFR Qingdao, a new high since December 2013. On the same day, Mysteel’s PORTDEX 62% Fe Australian Fines index also rose by Yuan 11/wmt ($1.7/wmt) on day to Yuan 915/wmt FOT Qingdao and including the 13% VAT.
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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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Major stainless producers in Taiwan including Yieh United Steel Corp (Yusco) and Tang Eng Iron Works Co (Tang Eng) have decided to raise their export prices for orders received in December, given the stronger raw materials prices and higher freight charges, Mysteel Global learned.
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In a move seen as aimed at cutting transaction costs for industrial entities such as steel mills and steel traders trading on the Shanghai Futures Exchange, the SHFE has announced it will waive the transaction fee for closing out a position opened the same day on all rebar and hot-rolled coil contracts beginning from the night session on December 3. Currently, the futures’ transaction fee rate of all rebar and hot-rolled coil contracts is 0.01% of the trading turnover, according to a SHFE notice on December 1.
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The stocks of processed and unprocessed steel scrap held by the 291 licensed steel scrapyards in China decreased for a second month during November, tumbling by 17% on month. Chiefly responsible for the decrease was active procurement among domestic steelmakers plus a decrease in recycling activities in the market, sources said.
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Chinese steel producers hiked their prices of steel products for export for the third week last week, even though steel prices at home had been softening, particularly those of long steel, Mysteel Global noted.
