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China’s return to work following the Chinese New Year holiday ending on February 10 has witnessed a flurry of announcements from provincial and city governments heralding the launch of public works projects, including many related to transportation infrastructure. The hotter-than-usual infrastructure activity is seen as helping to shore up domestic steel demand in 2019 when pundits are warning that steel will struggle this year.
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The daily crude steel output among the 348 Chinese mills under Mysteel’s regular survey rebounded over February 11-20, up by 2.4% from the previous ten days to 2.25 million tonnes/day, as five lager-sized blast furnaces in East and Central China returned to operations as planned over February 11-15 upon the completion of checks and repairs, according to Mysteel’s latest survey released on February 21.
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Echeng Steel Co, a subsidiary of China Baowu Steel Group Corp, planned to build a new 120-tonne converter at its existing works in Ezhou, Central China’s Hubei province, to replace old facilities, The notice from Hubei’s provincial Ministry of Economy and Information Technology on February 19.
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Mysteel’s national average price for HRB400 20mm dia rebar declined for the fifth successive day by another Yuan 20/tonne ($3/t) on day to Yuan 3,973/t including the 16% VAT as of February 20, as demand revival after the Chinese New Year break has been hindered by rainy days in China.
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Shanghai-listed Xining Special Steel, a carbon and specialty steelmaker located in Xining city, Northwest China’s Qinghai province, has received a warning from United Credit Ratings (United Ratings) about the rating presently assigned the steelmaker’s corporate bonds in view of the huge losses Xining generated last year.
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The Indian steel community is divided about the likelihood of the country achieving 300 million tonnes/year of installed steelmaking capacity by 2030-2031, despite the government’s emphasis on the feasibility of the target based on various market research and studies, according to Indian speakers at SteelMint’s 3rd Indian Iron Ore & Pellet Summit on February 18-19 in New Delhi.
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Daily crude steel output among China’s major steelmakers reversed up to an average of 1.82 million tonnes/day during January 21-31, higher by just 0.6% or 10,000 t/d from the previous ten days, the China Iron and Steel Association (CISA) announced on February 20 following its latest survey among its 97-member mills.
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After lagging behind their counterparts in most other provinces by several weeks, steelmakers in North China’s Shanxi province have launched a maintenance blitz that will see all nine of the province’s major steel producers overhauling blast furnaces and rolling facilities from late February through until early March, company data collected by Mysteel shows.
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With severe air pollution expected to envelop large swathes of China this week and next, industries identified as major sources of pollution such as steel mills will likely come under close monitoring by local governments ready to slap emergency restrictions on production, steel sector sources warned Tuesday. But though stern official announcements and excited Chinese media reports have raised anxiety levels among affected enterprises up a few notches, steel market watchers counsel calm, maintaining that disruptions to production are unlikely to be any more severe than those the industry has already endured so far this winter.
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Chinese domestic prices of rebars continued to soften on Tuesday with the slow recovery in demand, as widespread rains in South and East China continue to hamper the restart of building activity on construction sites, Mysteel notes.
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Chinese domestic steel prices are expected to remain rangebound in February, as demand will stay low and oversupply conditions will linger during the present off-season for steel sales, according to the latest monthly steel-market analysis released by the China Iron & Steel Association (CISA) on February 15.
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Mysteel’s price for Q235 150mm square billet in Tangshan, the pulse of China’s steel market, headed down over February 11-15, the first working week after the Chinese New Year holiday. Market sources on Monday said demand has not revived after the break as most local downstream re-rollers are yet to resume work.
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City government officials in North China’s Tangshan, the country’s major steel producing base, are celebrating its graduation in January from among China’s Top 20 cities with the worst atmospheric pollution, an achievement helped by the frequent cuts to steelmaking, sintering and coke production over the past few months, steel market sources said.
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New data from China’s central bank on Friday showing a surge in lending in January has sent positive signals to the country’s ferrous market as the sector expects the softening of financing and credit conditions should give a fillip to demand for steel and steelmaking raw materials, Mysteel has learned.
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Governments of Chinese provinces and cities are putting more emphasis on requiring enterprises to control emissions at times of heavy atmospheric pollution, formulating very detailed restrictive measures which heavy polluting industries including steelmakers are required to follow. The most recent, published by Changshu city in East China’s Jiangsu province on February 12, indicates such campaigns among local governments might be the new normal.
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The Baltic Dry Index (BDI), the world’s bellwether of the dry bulk freight market, has been heading downward ever since mid-December last year, hitting a 31-month low of 595 on February 11, or down 800 base points in total amid the persistent cooling in the dry bulk markets amid the Sino-US trade friction and Vale’s tailings dam collapse on January 25, market sources said on February 14.
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The European Commission’s definitive safeguard measures on imports of steel products which took effect from February 2 are unlikely to hurt China’s steel exports, according to Chinese market sources Wednesday.
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China’s exports of all types of steel reached 6.2 million tonnes in the first month of 2019, representing an increase of 33.3% from the previous year, according to the latest data released by China's General Administration of Customs on February 14.
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For January, China’s imports of coal and lignite surged 19.5% on year to 33.5 million tonnes, and the exports of coke
and semi-coke grew 4.4% on year to 716,000 tonnes. A detailed
report will be posted.
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China's January iron ore imports decreased 9.1% on year to 91.3 million tonnes. A detailed report will be posted.
