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Japan’s domestic ferrous scrap prices in the Kanto area around Tokyo, have shown signs of recovery after three weeks of declining by a total of Yen 13,500-14,500/tonne ($129-138/t), mainly on the support of active scrap shipping to mini-mills in western Japan, market sources shared on February 3.
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The softening of Japanese ferrous scrap prices which began in mid-January has accelerated over the past week, especially in the Kanto area around Tokyo, due to falling demand from mini-mills in the region, market sources observed on Thursday.
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Chinese steelmakers have announced intensive maintenance plans recently, and though overhauls are not uncommon during the usual winter lull in business, this year the mills are offering a variety of reasons for taking some major equipment items offline, citing everything from coke shortages to bitter cold.
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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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The Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the steel industry in North China’s Hebei province, the country’s top steel production base, reversed up in December after sliding for the prior three months, gaining 0.9 basis point on month to 51.9, according to the latest release by the Hebei Metallurgical Industry Association.
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No one would have expected the steelmaking raw materials prices including iron ore, coke and scrap to have attempted multi-year highs in December, a usual off season for steel consumption and production, but the year 2020 had been proven anything but normal, and many iron ore traders ended their 2020 in frustration, as iron ore prices shot up for seemingly no reason at all.
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Nippon Steel Stainless Steel Corp (NSSC), Japan’s largest stainless producer, has decided to lift its December-February list prices for 300-series wire rod (January-March roll) to reflect higher nickel prices, the company confirmed on December 22. The price for 304 grade wire rods will be higher by Yen 15,000/tonne ($145/t), but that for NSSC’s 400-series rods will remain unchanged.
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Nippon Steel says the stoppage of a cold-rolling mill at its Nagoya Works in central Japan after last week’s fire impacted its operations less than had been expected, with most of the facilities at the mill restarted after a couple days and as of Wednesday, overall production at the mill had mostly returned to normal.
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Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest integrated mill, has been forced to halt operations on a cold-rolling mill at its Nagoya Works in central Japan after a fire broke out on the mill early on December 7, a company official confirmed. Market observers told Mysteel Global the incident could impact automotive sheet supply, just when domestic demand is active.
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Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest integrated steelmaker, has decided to restart another banked blast furnace, announcing on December 4 that a large unit north of Tokyo will be restarted in late January to lift hot metal supply in response to improving steel demand from auto manufacturers.
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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.
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Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest integrated mill, has restarted a banked blast furnace located in the Kimitsu Area of its East Nippon Works in Chiba prefecture, near Tokyo, to respond to improving steel demand from consumers, especially auto makers.
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JFE Steel, Japan’s second largest integrated mill, will start relining the No.6 blast furnace at the Chiba area of its East Japan Works much sooner than the mill had initially scheduled, saying that by starting the work early it can start cutting production costs sooner, JFE announced on November 9.
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JFE Steel, Japan’s second largest integrated steelmaker, has lifted all its construction steel prices other than H-beams by Yen 5,000/tonne ($48/t) for new bookings from the domestic buyers starting this week, a company official confirmed on September 23.
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Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest integrated mill, have been mulling the restart of two idled blast furnaces in the second half of fiscal 2020 (October 2020-March 2021) on noting the steady improvement in steel demand from the country’s auto sector, a Nippon Steel official confirmed on September 4.
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Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest integrated mill, has reignited the halted blast furnace with an inner volume of 2,650 cu meters on August 20 at its Kure area of Setouchi Works in western Japan after a halt over August 14-19, and its steel production has not been affected much, a company official confirmed on August 28.
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Japan’s ferrous scrap prices for both domestic sales and exports rose another $5/t on week over July 27-31, or up for the fourth week as inquiries from the overseas customers remained active, offsetting the lull from the domestic market with many mill under the summer maintenance, traders in Tokyo and Nagoya in central Japan shared.
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China’s consumption of steel with construction steel in particular is expected to recover in August from the rainy and flooded July, partly due to the catch-up of progress at the construction sites in South and East China after the adverse weather, Mysteel predicted in its latest monthly report.
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Japan’s ferrous scrap prices for both domestic sales and exports rose further by $5/tonne on week over July 20-22, as domestic steel mills procured more for the longer weekend with the national holidays over July 23-24, though Japanese market sources expected domestic scrap consumption to reduce with the domestic steel producers’ imminent summer maintenance.
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A quick look at how China's economy and steel market performed in the first half of 2020.
