-
Starting this month, most steel producers in Tangshan, China’s top steel producing city in North China’s Hebei province, could find themselves forced to halt some facilities including blast furnaces and sintering machines perhaps for as long as three months, as part of production restrictions on industrial enterprises to control pollution and improve air quality, according to a draft seen by Mysteel Global.
-
Unlike the previous years, Japan’s electric-arc-furnace (EAF) mills will not stock up much finished steel for sales in July-August, even though their plants will be shut down for about one or two weeks to reduce power usage as usual during the country’s peak power consumption in summer, as demand in 2020 has been too stagnant, mini-mill sources confirmed on June 19.
-
Click here for part 1 of the feature
High
steel output and stocks to persist in H2
The unsolvable
uncertainties in demand will only lead to the rises in finished steel
inventories on the zealous output, which will test the Chinese steel market
resilience in the latter half of 2020, keeping the market participants always
on their
-
Nippon Steel, Japan’s largest integrated mill, has delayed the banking of No.2 furnace at its Kimitsu works near Tokyo by about a month until mid-June, as it has not been able to fulfill the signed contracts by mid-May, the company’s spokeswoman explained on June 4.
-
Shagang Group, China’s largest private steelmaker headquartered in East China’s Jiangsu province plans to halt steel making and rolling facilities including blast furnaces and electric arc furnaces (EAF) since middle April for regular maintenance, a Shagang official confirmed to Mysteel Global on April 9.
-
Rebar rolling capacity utilization rate at the 22 sampled steel producers in Jiangsu of East China, the country’s largest rebar production base, fell to 40.2% as of February 18, a record low since March 2015, as they had been forced to scaled down production amid high stocks and constraints of raw materials supply and manpower amid the ongoing fight against Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (NCP), according to a Mysteel’ market survey.
-
Shagang Group, China’s largest privately-owned steel producer and top rebar mill in East China’s Jiangsu province have idled two rebar rolling lines for maintenance according to the original schedule instead of any forced move by the ongoing battle against the Novel Coronavirus Pneumonia (NCP), a company official reiterated on Friday.
-
A number of Chinese steel producers have opted to scale down their crude steel production by conducting maintenance on their furnaces as the counter measure against the market quietness because of the Novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak, Mysteel understood from related surveys.
-
The softening of market demand for steel in winter, particularly for long products, has encouraged Chinese steelmakers to arrange intensive maintenance programmes, market sources shared on Friday, with stoppages already begun at some producers.
-
Many electric-arc furnace (EAF) steelmakers across China have returned to the market to procure scrap after gradually resuming production following stoppages for maintenance, according to Mysteel’s latest survey released on September 25. Others whose furnaces are still switched off are nonetheless preparing to re-enter the market as the profit margins available for EAF producers are increasing, respondents said.
-
Fourteen major steelmakers in North China’s Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region which Mysteel regularly monitors plan to deliver fewer long steel products to the local physical market this month, according to the results of a study Mysteel released on Wednesday. Many among the group are still observing production restrictions or have stopped lines for normal maintenance, so they anticipate their steel output will be reduced this month.
-
A growing number of Chinese steelmakers have recently joined the others announcing their maintenance plans on their steelmaking or rolling facilities starting July as the country has been into the hot summer when the demand for steel usually subsides.
-
The capacity utilization among blast furnaces operated by 247 Chinese steel plants nationwide under Mysteel’s weekly survey kept sliding over March 1-7, down another 1.92 percentage points on week to 76.96%, or a new low since January 25, according to Mysteel’s latest survey released on March 8.
-
As of March 4, a total of 27 Chinese steel producers nationwide were known to have or will start their regular minor or major maintenance on their facilities in March, lasting from a week to as long as 90 days, which is expected to slow down the flow of finished steel supplies into the Chinese market this month, market sources shared on Tuesday.
-
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.
-
Leading Chinese commodity market intelligence agency Mysteel has successfully completed an external assurance review of its iron ore price indices in relation to the IOSCO Principles for Financial Benchmarks.
-
The cooling of steel demand now that winter has taken hold across most parts of China has led many more steelmakers to announce maintenance plans this month, Mysteel has learned from market sources.
-
Other than the steel industry, coking industry has been a primary target in Beijing’s battle against air pollution too for 2018, as China’s central government has intensified the efforts in the aspect to improve the air quality in the core Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.
-
Feng Hsin Steel, Taiwan’s largest rebar producer headquartered in Taichung, Central Taiwan, has decided to roll over its domestic sales prices for rebar and its procurement prices for locally-sourced scrap for the current August 27-31 week after a cut of TWD 200/tonne ($6.5/t) for both prices last week, a company official told Mysteel on August 28.
-
Mysteel’s latest survey released on August 17 showed that the capacity utilization rate of blast furnaces at 247 Chinese steel plants regularly checked inched up by a tiny 0.04 percentage point on week during the week of August 10-16 to 79.16%.
