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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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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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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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China’s production of crude stainless steel in January decreased by 7% on month to 1.95 million tonnes, as poor demand around the Chinese New Year holiday break led stainless mills to opt to shut for maintenance and overhauls, according to the findings of Mysteel’s latest monthly survey among 21 domestic stainless makers published on February 19. The 21 mills account for over 90% of China’s total stainless output.
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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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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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Taishan Steel Group Co, the only sizeable stainless producer in East China’s Shandong province has just started constructing an 800,000 tonnes/year stainless cold rolling mill adjacent to its existing stainless hot-rolling mill in Laiwu district, Jinan city of Shandong, a company official confirmed on Thursday.
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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.
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China’s January steel exports increased 33.3% on year to 6.2 million tonnes while imports declined 1% on year to 1.2 million tonnes. A detailed report will be posted.
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Steel mills in Tangshan in North China’s Hebei province have yet assessed the situation and panned out how to adhere to the local authorities’ detailed requirements on curbing their sintering and blast furnace operations over April-September.
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The most traded May rebar and hot-rolled coil contract on the Shanghai Futures Exchange (SHFE) both closed higher at the end of the daytime trading on February 11, mainly on the support of the strong performance of the iron ore futures on the Dalian Commodity Exchange, according to market sources.
