NBS: China’s Jan-Oct steel output grows faster at 5.5%

The on-year growth in China’s crude steel output picked up in pace over January-October, gaining 5.5% on year to 874 million tonnes as against the 4.5% on-year rise for the first nine months, though its daily crude steel output for October dropped to a low since April, according to the latest release from the country’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on November 16.

Last month, China’s crude steel production increased 12.7% on year but down 0.4% on month to 92.2 million tonnes, and the daily steel output averaged 2.97 million tonnes/day, down 3.6% on month and having eased from the above 3 million t/d over June-September, Mysteel Global calculated based on the NBS data.

In general, China’s steel output up to October had been on a fast lane with the overall market optimism on the domestic steel demand on the back of the government spending on infrastructure, and October should have seen obvious declines in China’s steel output in the past few years when the country kicked off the winter restriction, but this year, the impact appeared not as substantial, Mysteel Global noted.

“China’s crude steel output has been really eye-opening, I had not expected it to be so strong, and will definitely break through 1 billion tonnes,” a Singapore-based iron ore trader commenting, noting that China’s monthly steel output in the past few months had been higher than Japan’s annual steel output.

The slight softening in China’s monthly steel production in October was mainly due to the limited curtailing of the Chinese steel mills in their production with the remaining robust domestic steel demand but the persistently high supply and inventories on the other hand as well as the probable steel consumption waning in winter months.

For October, daily trading of construction steel comprising rebar, wire rod and bar-in-coil Mysteel’s survey among China’s 237 traders grew 8.3% on month to 244,121 t/d on average, while China’s national price of the HRB 400 20mm dia rebar remained largely stable, up merely Yuan 13/tonne ($2/t) on month to Yuan 3,820/t including the VAT on average, according to Mysteel’s data.

As for finished steel, China’s output posted a more notable rise in October, up 14.2% on year to 118.5 million tonnes, and the production over the first ten months approximated 1.1billion tonnes, up 6.5% on year, with the growth 0.9 percentage point higher than that over January-September, the NBS statistics showed.

Written by Anna Wu, wub@mysteel.com

Edited by Hongmei Li, li.hongmei@mysteel.com