China's stainless output falls further in Jan
The further on-month fall was mainly seen in the production of 200- and 300-series stainless, which slipped by 22.5% and 6% respectively from the previous month, while output of 400-series stainless witnessed an on-month rise of 15.6%, the survey findings showed.
Stainless output among China's 43 mills in Jan (Unit: tonnes)
Product |
Jan |
MoM(%) |
YoY(%) |
200-series |
680,700 |
-22.47% |
13.75% |
300-series |
1,530,200 |
-5.95% |
12.09% |
400-series |
529,900 |
15.6% |
25.36% |
Total |
2,741,000 |
-7.51% |
14.86% |
Source: Mysteel
The results mainly reflected the fact that more Chinese stainless producers conducted annual maintenance on their steelmaking facilities in January, as demand from end-users decreased further with the looming Chinese New Year holiday over February 10-17, Mysteel Global leaned. Transactions in the physical market also slowed gradually.
Domestic stainless prices recovered last month from the guarded optimism industry participants held about the stainless market after the CNY break. As of January 31, the spot price of 304/2B 2mm stainless cold-rolled coil in Wuxi, a major stainless trading hub in East China's Jiangsu, was assessed by Mysteel at Yuan 14,600/tonne ($2,031/t) in-warehouse and including the 13% VAT, higher by Yuan 300/t from one month earlier.
Although stainless inventories at traders' warehouses accumulated somewhat in January, the total volume still stayed relatively low, which also lent some support to domestic stainless prices, Mysteel Global noted.
As of January 25, stainless inventories at the 42 warehouses in Wuxi and the 25 in Foshan – China's two core stainless trading hubs – totalled 741,431 tonnes, up by 2.1% compared with the end of December, according to Mysteel's weekly survey.
For this month, stainless output among the sampled mills is expected to decline steadily to reach 2.57 million tonnes, lower by 6.3% on month, as the CNY holiday will bring domestic market activity to a standstill, survey respondents suggested.
Meanwhile, last month the combined output of crude stainless at the steel mills in Indonesia operated by Chinese makers Tsingshan Holding Group and Jiangsu Delong Nickel Industry Co reached 450,000 tonnes, jumping by 11.1% on month, according to Mysteel's survey. Their output for February is expected to keep stable at 450,000 tonnes, however.
Written by Nancy Zheng, zhengmm@mysteel.com
Edited by Russ McCulloch, russ.mcculloch@mysteel.com
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