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Total stainless steel inventories at commercial warehouses in Wuxi and Foshan, China’s two core stainless trading hubs, began declining once more over September 18-24, dipping by 2.8% on week after mounting for the two prior weeks, mainly thanks to fewer consignments of stainless products arriving at traders’ warehouses and higher consumption among users, according to Mysteel’s latest weekly survey.
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China’s flat steel exports totalled 22.2 million tonnes over January-August, down 16.4% on year, according to the latest statistics from China’s General Administration of Statistics (GACC) published on September 23. Over the months while COVID-19 was raging abroad, Chinese steel mills were more focused on selling domestically when global steel demand was still on the track of recovery.
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Crude steel output among the 64 countries tracked monthly by the World Steel Association (WSA) grew by 0.6% on year to 156 million tonnes in August, ending the persistent on-year decline over the prior five months, according to WSA data.
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Japan’s crude steel production including both carbon and special steel declined by 20.6% on year to about 6.45 million tonnes in August, making for the sixth consecutive monthly on-year drop, according to the latest data released by the Japan Iron & Steel Federation (JISF) on September 24.
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China’s national price of HRB400 20mm dia rebar continued to soften for the eighth consecutive working days. It reached a nearly three-month low of Yuan 3,760/tonne ($550.5/t) including the 13% VAT as of September 24, down another Yuan 4/t on day or a total of Yuan 98/t so far in September.
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India is among one of the key producers and consumers of steel pipes and tubes in the Asia-Pacific region. India’s steel production crossed 110 million tonnes in fiscal 2020 and steel pipes contribution stood at around 8% of India’s steel consumption.
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Tsingshan Group (Tsingshan), the world’s leading stainless steel producer headquartered in East China’s Zhejiang province, is planning to establish a new 4 million tonnes/year stainless steel project in Yangjiang city in South China’s Guangdong province, in partnership with a state-owned investment company Guangdong Guangxin Holdings Group Co (Guangxin), the steelmaker has announced.
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Stocks of the five major steel items held by Chinese traders declined for the third successive week over September 18-24, dipping by another 1.1% on week, as against the 0.7% on-week decline seen in the prior week, Mysteel Global’s latest survey shows. Nevertheless, market sentiment was still comparatively bearish, survey respondents observed.
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Nippon Steel Stainless Steel Corp (NSSC), Japan’s largest stainless producer, has decided to lift September-November list prices of 300-series wire rod (October-December roll) to reflect higher nickel prices, the company confirmed on September 24. The increase for 304 grade rods will be Yen 20,000/tonne ($190/t) though NSSC is making no changes to its 400-series prices.
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Chinese steel mills, traders and end-users have been active in replenishment ahead of China’s upcoming National Day holiday, fearing that trading or transportation might slow down or be halted completely during the long holiday over October 1-8, Mysteel Global has learned from domestic industry sources.
