-
Despite being the world’s largest producer of coke, China is witnessing increasing local-market demand for coke from foreign producers, due to a sustained shortage of domestic supply. In October, the country’s net coke imports surged by 29% from September to above 220,000 tonnes, Mysteel Global calculated based on new General Administration of Customs (GACC) data.
-
Nippon Steel Engineering, the engineering arm of Japan’s largest steel producer, has received an order from Taiwan’s China Steel Corp to supply a large Coke Dry Quenching (CDQ) plant, NSE announced on November 26.
-
China’s manganese ore imports remained largely stable in October – albeit rather high – at 3.24 million tonnes, lower by just 1.7% from the nine-month high reached in September, according to the latest detailed data released by China’s General Administration of Customs.
-
As of November 26, China’s domestic iron ore inventories at the country’s 186 mining companies hit a new low of 1.84 million tonnes ever since Mysteel commenced the larger-scale survey in January 2019, as demand had been robust while output had been curtailed by recent government-imposed restrictions especially in North China.
-
Blast furnace capacity utilization among China’s 247 steel mills under Mysteel’s weekly survey ended its three-week slips, up 0.83 percentage point on week to 92.47% over November 20-26, mainly as steel mills had ramped up the output moderately on higher margins, market sources commented.
-
China’s four top governing organizations released a joint release on November 25, reaffirmed the country’s banning of solid wastes imports starting January 1 2021, which has created mild panic in domestic ferrous and nonferrous communities, fearing that Beijing was reversing earlier plans to liberalize imports of such scraps, though industry insiders stayed calm, reminding all of the exact definitions in the document.
-
Indian ferro chrome prices are marginally lower than the previous week amidst a supply-demand mismatch. Producers with higher inventory are desperate to liquidate the stock to mitigate the cash flow crunch. Meanwhile, suppliers with stable long-term contracts in hand are firm with their offers.
-
China’s rebar prices in spot market declined further on November 26 on the overall dampened market sentiment with the cold weather enveloping most parts of China, though the daily construction steel trading volume recovered modestly, Mysteel Global noted.
-
India’s imported metallurgical coke prices have continued to increase further for all origins, with buyers being more cautious amid concerns on limited availability of spot tonnages across Asian markets.
-
The relative balance of supply and demand in the global market for Capesize carriers over the past several weeks has caused freight charges for Cape carriers shipping iron ore from Brazil and Australia to China to fluctuate at relatively low levels currently, according to market sources on Thursday.
-
Total stocks of finished steel held by Chinese traders declined at a slower pace over November 20-26 as many regions in China were hit by suddenly plummeting temperatures, heavy rains and snowfalls, causing a parallel freezing of demand, Mysteel Global has learned.
-
China’s imported iron ore market saw prices for both port inventories and seaborne cargos gain on November 26, with Mysteel’s PORTDEX 62% Fe Australian Fines index up by Yuan 9/wmt ($1.4/wmt) on day to Yuan 897/wmt FOT Qingdao and including the 13% VAT. Meanwhile, the SEADEX 62% Fe Australian Fines price rose by another $2.15/dmt on day to $129.9/dmt CFR Qingdao.
-
China’s total imports of coking coal grew by 3.6% on year in October to 5.9 million tonnes, though this represented a large 12.2% decline from September, according to data issued by China’s General Administration of Customs (GACC). Contributing mainly to the on-year growth in October was volume from Mongolia which offset the decline in Australian coking coal imports.
-
Inventories of imported iron ore stocks at China’s 64 steelmakers grew 603,900 tonnes or 3.5% on week to about 17.6 million tonnes as of November 25, according to Mysteel’s survey, as some Chinese steel mills are preparing for higher steel output now that short-term restriction on their sintering plants have been removed, market sources shared.
-
Shagang Group (Shagang), China’s largest electric-arc-furnace (EAF) steelmaker, has raised its steel scrap procurement price by Yuan 50/tonne ($7.6/t) effective November 26, according to company release, which has indicated the remaining firm demand from the Chinese steel mills while the limited supply in winter.
-
Goan govt. organised 24th iron ore e-auction on 10th Nov’20. Out of 3 mn t iron ore put under hammer, 2.4 mn t was ROM, 0.6 MnT was fines and 0.06 MnT was lump. Sri Zacarias Antao(Late) was the largest supplier at 120,000 t followed by Kunda R Gharse at 85,500 t and Emco Goa Pvt Ltd at 78,580t.
-
China’s rebar price retreated on November 25 after refreshing its one-year highs continuously this month. Long steel sales continued to weaken in the spot market amid strong cold waves in many domestic regions, according to Mysteel’s tracking.
-
China Baowu Steel Group (Baowu), China’s and also the world’s top steel producer in capacity, has been taking no break in its expansion in capacity and inner strength enhancement at the same time, with the latest move to solidify its footing in Northwest China via acquiring existing steel mill and iron ore mines, Mysteel Global noted.
-
Despite the buoyant demand for coal from end-users, recently some Chinese wash plants have slowed down their processing of metallurgical coal slightly, as a tactic to hold their coal prices firm, according to Mysteel’s survey. The wash plants had noted that coal stocks at coking plants are rising.
-
Chinese steel mills raised their steel export offers last week and again this week, even though domestic steel prices have started showing signs of weakening and when global demand is not so strong, Mysteel Global has learned.
