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Daily crude steel output among the member mills of the China Iron & Steel Association (CISA) rose further over January 11-20, climbing by a small 1.02% from that over early January to an average of 2.22 million tonnes/day, or 12.3% higher on year, according to CISA’s latest data released on January 25.
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Japan posted a 51-year low in its crude steel output for the calendar year of 2020, which slumped for the sixth consecutive year by another 16.2% on year to about 83.2 million tonnes, according to the latest data from the Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF), and this was mainly due to the adverse impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, a JISF official commented on January 25.
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Beijing has been working quietly on carbon emission cuts for a few years but its open pledge in 2020 to peak the country’s carbon emission by 2030 and to achieve carbon neutrality by 2060 has undoubtedly imposed more pressure publicly on the steel industry, the country’s second largest carbon emission source only after the thermal coal power generation.
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During the January 18-22 week, the prices of both rebar and hot-rolled coil (HRC) in China’s physical market dipped, as the demand from their respective end-users wanned and the domestic steel traders showed limited interest in stocking up finished steel despite only three weeks away from the Chinese New Year (CNY) holiday over February 11-17, Mysteel Global noted.
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On January 22, China’s spot sales of construction steel including rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil among the country’s 237 trading houses slumped to 84,355 tonnes/day, or a new low since February 28 2020 after a 19.7% on-day fall, though the country’s national rebar price gained Yuan 6/tonne ($0.9/t) on day, according to Mysteel’s surveys.
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New data from China’s General Administration of Customs showed that the country imported 18.3 million tonnes of semi-finished steel items in 2020, five times higher than in 2019 and hitting a record high since 2006 when Mysteel started to archive the Customs data. Semi-finished steel imports reached record levels last year as domestic prices were much higher than international prices, especially over May-August, analysts explained.
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Rebar prices in China’s futures market stayed rangebound during the January 18-22 week. Sources said Friday that weakening demand had dampened the rebar price and that in the days ahead, the trend of raw materials prices would play an important role in determining the ferrous market’s direction overall.
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Despite the hit that the domestic and global economies suffered from the spreading COVID virus last year, Chinese white goods manufacturers managed to maintain comparatively stable production and sales throughout 2020, thanks in part to increasing overseas demand, new official data shows.
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On January 21, China’s rebar price recovered marginally by Yuan 4/tonne ($0.6/t) on day after two days of softening, and spot sales of construction steel including rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil also saw an uptick though by merely 0.6% on day, according to Mysteel’s survey.
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Japan’s total steel exports during calendar 2020 fell 4.8% on year to 31.26 million tonnes, according to preliminary data released by Japan’s Ministry of Finance on January 21. Last year’s result marked the fourth year in a row that annual export volume had fallen below 40 million tonnes, with the reduction mainly attributed to the negative impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on steel consumption worldwide.
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Daily crude steel production among the 318 Chinese steel mills under Mysteel’s regular survey continued to decline during the middle ten days of January to hit a seven-month low of 2.89 million tonnes/day, according to Mysteel’s latest survey released on January 21. This was lower by another 28,600 t/d or 1% from that for the prior ten days.
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Japan’s largest integrated mill, Nippon Steel, has decided to add Yen 10,000/tonne ($97/t) to domestic and export prices of its special steel long products to pass along higher raw material costs, a company official confirmed on January 21.
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Chinese steel mills would not have foreseen a rather robust December in 2020 though steel prices had climbed out of the deep hole since last April and stayed on an uptrend with the resumption of the economic and industrial activities afterwards for the rest of the year.
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On January 20, China’s rebar price declined for the second working day by another Yuan 10/tonne ($1.5/t), and daily sales of construction steel including rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil declined for the third working day, down another 6.1%, according to Mysteel’s monitoring.
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Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest integrated mill, has restarted a banked blast furnace at the Kashima Area of its East Nippon Works in Ibaraki prefecture, north of Tokyo. The steelmaker is responding to improving domestic steel demand, mainly from the country’s auto and machinery sectors, it said.
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China’s domestic steel prices are likely to retreat in the coming term as demand from end-users may shrink, according to the latest monthly report of the China Iron & Steel Association (CISA) published on January 19. CISA noted that the cold winter temperatures in many regions of China make this season the off-season for steel consumption, but added that enhanced measures to control the spread of COVID-19 would also affect demand.
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Since the start of 2021, China’s rebar export price has caught up with speed in strengthening, up $15/tonne on week or $30/t higher than the end of December, and the export volume has surged too, while the hot-rolled coil (HRC) prices has shown signs of waning after the earlier spree in December, Mysteel’s latest weekly report.
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On January 19, China’s rebar price reversed down by Yuan 10/tonne ($1.5/t), and the daily sales of construction steel including rebar, wire rod and bar-in coil fell to its 10-month low of 111,295 tonnes/day, Mysteel global noted.
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Japan’s carbon steel products sales both at the home market and exports in November totalled 4.95 million tonnes, unchanged on month but having levelled with the pre-pandemic volume, according to the latest data released by the Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF) on January 18, though the market sources warned the remaining uncertainties in the aspects in the coming months because of the new wave of COVID-19.
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On January 18, China’s rebar price inched up for the second working day by another Yuan 3/tonne ($0.5/t) from last Friday, while the daily sales of construction steel including rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil had been fluctuating, and it reversed down 9.5% from last Friday again on Monday, Mysteel Global noted.
